Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green tells the story of Quentin, otherwise known as Q. Q and his next door neighbor Margo used to be best friends and, as they’ve grown up and become high school seniors, they have turned into acquaintances. One night, Margo talks Q into helping her seek revenge on her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend, who happen to be sneaking around behind her back to have sex together. After their fun and rowdy late night, Q is anxious to see if Margo acts differently towards him at school. When she’s not at school or even at home for a couple of days, everyone assumes Margo is on just another one of her adventures. As Q tries to figure out and follow the clues, he begins to worry that he might find Margo dead. The ongoing suspense along with the wonderfully executed humor have made this one of my favorite books from beginning to end. Dynamic, complex, real characters bring depth, realism and humor into this adventure of a story-5 Stars!

I give this book a 2 1/12 star (rather than a 2) because I liked the writing style, which I found to be entertaining. The story arc? Not so much. I actually thought it was pretty good up to the point where Margo disappears, which is fairly early in the story. But from then on, the story spins it\’s wheels, while the characters obsess about prom, get drunk, over-think things, and follow clues that go nowhere, until the story finally limps to an unimpressive climax. SPOILER ALERT: Margo is ultimately found. But why she preferred to run away days before completing her HS diploma to live in scary, decaying, boarded-up buildings and write in notebooks didn\’t really resonate with me. Other than her parents being intolerant asses and not understanding her, in the absence of any terrible psychological, emotional, or physical trauma, I couldn\’t fully appreciate (as presented) her appeal for this dreary and lonely lifestyle. Although she disappears early in the book, she\’s a big presence in the book, talked about and obsessed about constantly by Q and the other characters. She\’s revered as a \”legend\” and arguably one of the more interesting characters in the book – if not by presence, by reputation. So there\’s all this mystery and build up around her. The allure of her bigger-than- life persona. Her fearless wild actions. It all sets up a series of questions that begs for dramatic answers. Where did she go and why? Did she run away? Was she dead? Was she off doing wondrous bold things? After a drawn out circle-jerk of clues, that made little sense at all- they finally find her and…pffffft. Her reasons for running aren\’t particularly interesting or strong – which was a major let down. Equally unsatisfactory: What ultimately happens to Margo from there? After a kind of climactic \”wrap it up\” talk between Margo and Q, which I guess, is supposed to be deep, about how much Q has grown brave because of her and how no one really knew or saw Margo for who she is, insert metaphors, literary symbolism, and more metaphors, they make pledges to email and stay in touch, etc etc etc – Q and his merry crew leave Margo where they found her – in a small NY town living in a deserted decaying building with no electricity or plumping (she has to go to the nearby truck stop to shower) which is, I guess where she wants to be. [ Apparently, planning to eventually move to NYC or something] She seems pretty depressed to me. What\’s to become of her? We never know. But I guess Margo\’s not supposed to be the point, although you kinda wish she was, after all, she\’s pretty much the main focus of Q\’s inner dialog ad nauseam throughout the entire book. But it\’s Q\’s journey and how his idealization of Margo drives him. I just wish his journey had been more interesting. BTW, the whole Paper Town analogy didn\’t quite resonate for me either. Something about suburban new development , or….something. To be fair, I was skimming rapidly by this time, having tired of the clues to no where, so maybe I missed it.

Of the John Green books I have read, this is my favorite. We have a familiar cast of characters — the nerdy teenage boy and his brainiac friends and the damaged teenage girl who is may be popular and confident on the outside but is deeply troubled on the inside. We also have a lot of smart dialogue, a mystery, a quest and the anguish and sweetness of young love. But in this book, it somehow comes together, aided by the musings of Walt Whitman, is a way that is not treacly or weepy – but real and grounded. The book is dominated by Margo, a high school queen bee whose brash exterior hides an intellectual and angst-filled interior. The male lead is Quentin, brainy but balanced. The two live next door but are in different social sects in the high school caste system. However Quentin carries a torch for his childhood friend. After an extraordinary night of adventure together a month before graduation, Margo disappears leaving some cryptic clues as to her whereabouts. It is for Quentin to follow the trail — but to find Margo he first has to understand Margo, not as an ideal or love object or symbol — but the real person. The climactic scenes of this quest are extraordinarily well done and the final resolution is moving without being shattering. Really enjoyed this one.

The dialogue was a bit cheesy and didn\’t seem realistic. Granted it\’s been a minute since I was a teenager myself, it just felt inauthentic and forced at times. Also, I cringe when people use the word \”retarded\” and felt it was used unnecessarily several times throughout the book. Whether or not teenagers might still use that word, it was totally unnecessary for multiple characters to use, including the narrator. It\’s an offensive word and gives people the wrong idea that it is okay to use, given that a lot of young impressionable people read these books. Could have easily exchanged for a different word used by teenagers with the meaning author intended. Liked \”Turtles All the Way Down\” a lot better.

Genre(s): Romance, Mystery, Young Adult Favourite Quote: \”I don\’t know how I look, but I know how I feel. Young. Goofy. Infinite.\” *** Please note that this review will likely contain spoilers and only reflects my own thoughts and experiences. There is no conflict of interest here. *** I\’m about eleven years too late to this party but I\’ve heard that this is a must read more times than I be bothered to count, so here we are! I\’m no stranger to John Green, having used to watch the VLOG Brothers series on YouTube many eons ago. I\’ve read three of his other titles: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and The Fault in Our Stars. The latter probably the most well known after the film which was popular with the teens. A lot of Green\’s book tend to take a similar form, in my opinion, so I go into Paper Towns with the wondering if I will have the same experience or if it will be something fantastically different? Let\’s break this down shall we? Story We start with a death, or the aftermath of a suicide to be more descriptive. We meet our two young, main characters who unwillingly meet said Mr. Recently Deceased and come to terms with the idea of the finality of death. Quick scene change to present day and we live on the shoulder of Quentin; our male protagonist as he\’s drafted into Margo Roth Speigelman\’s antics (you will despise this name eventually). We learn that Quentin and Margo haven\’t actually really spoken much since their duo suicide find as children and for some reason, Margo then chooses this time to pay real attention to Quentin. After their night filled of semi-illegal activities designed to punish anyone and everyone who ever got under her skin, Margo then disappears after this night. The whole story is then revolved around trying to find her by deciphering obnoxiously ridiculous \’clues\’ apparently left behind. They follow a clue. They failed to find her. They follow another clue. And another. And another. Fail, rinse and repeat. Again and again. I didn\’t really care if they found Margo or not. The most exciting part of the story for me, was the character development between Quentin, his friends and the \’popular\’ crowd. Setting Set in Orlando. Mostly Quentin\’s house and a weird abandoned mall that Margo happened to live in for a bit. Aside from this, we didn\’t really see a lot more on of typical daily life – however I did enjoy the road trip and really felt like cheering when they left the mundane confines of this town I personally don\’t know anything about. The paper towns references did take a bit of time to get my head around, but I kind of got it in the end-ish. Characters My main issue with all Green\’s books that I\’ve read, is that the characters are all very same-y. You\’ve got the main protagonist, who\’s usually a male nerdy figure with some sort of special quirk about him and very smart. Then you\’ve got the female interest who\’s always the out and out ballsy girl of his dreams who\’s the total polar opposite and has the moral structure of beating to her own drums. Lastly, you\’ve always got one or two comic relief characters who are the support system, but still throw out one liners and some sort of remark about \’man I need a girl\’. There\’s always a character in one of Green\’s books that seems to have a serious case of verbal diorrhoea. In which case, it\’s Margo Roth bloody Spiegelman. That on more than a few occasions, I just wanted her to give me a few minutes of peace to digest the situation. The main flaw for me that I couldn\’t get past is that Margo really manipulates Quentin\’s love for her. She\’s not an idiot. She knows that he will do literally anything for her. So when she appears on his windowsill one night with her ultimate plan, despite having not had a real conversation with him for years, she knows Quentin is the only one who will admire and support her edgy need for having the last word. Equally annoyingly, Quentin holds her in too high of a regard for what she deserves. Margo does not want to be found, she wants people to be in love with the memory of her. When the group manage to track her down eventually and she responds with rude comments to be met with their disappointment at her greeting, I felt like this was the realest point in the story. But no, this quickly changes again to the Margo show. The Margo is so bloody amazing show. My respect for Quentin just disappears really and I find myself wanting to shake him silly and tell him that this romantic idea of his friend, is only an ideal, not the reality. Language Typical John Green conversation that involves teenagers/young adults speaking about topics and theoretical philosophy way above their heads for the age group. A little unrealistic. Theme I don\’t want to refer to this as a romance because it\’s Quentin being unwillingly manipulated into thinking Margo is a God or an angel in fleshy form. OK. Maybe not as dramatic, but it very well may be. I would class this as a young adult/coming of age tale. PROS + Quentin\’s parents are surprisingly decent + Two words: black santas + Radar was the least annoying secondary character CONS + Although very intelligent, Quentin is a love sick idiot for following on this crazy chicken chase. Honestly, he deserved better + Margo Roth Speigelman is a terribly dull character and totally in love with herself. This makes for such a meaningless and annoying ending + The string of clues were really out of the box and just ridiculous for both a teenager to create and others to even begin to follow! + The repetitive nature of here\’s a clue, here\’s a location, no Margo, next clue. And so on. + The paper towns was a nice gimmick, but I think fed into the overall story a little weirdly Conclusion Perhaps I\’m just not someone who enjoys John Green books, which is a shame because I genuinely like him as a person. The repetition of the overall theme of this book in line with his other titles are as follows: totally unattainable girl. Nerdy main character. Comic relief nerdy friend and some kind of coming of age romance. I really didn\’t enjoy reading this and it was honestly a slog for me to get to the end. Although this just wasn\’t the story for me, I acknowledge that it still remains a fairly popular book and film for some others. Overall I award Paper Towns: 2 out of 5 magical unicorns ??

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