Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns

By John Green

Release Date: October 16, 2008

Source: Own Copy

Summary: Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Review: This book has been sitting on my shelf for over two years, and I finally had the chance to pick it up. John Green is a name that EVERYONE knows, so I had pretty high expectations going into this one. I really enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars, my first John Green novel, so I couldn't wait to see how this one turned out. 

Quentin has always watched Margo from afar. Margo is the girl next door who's always been a wild mystery, even to her best friends. One night, when she shows up at Quentin's window asking him to join her on an all-night adventure of revenge and thrill, he's too shocked to say no. But when their adventure ends and it's time to get back to reality, Margo becomes an even bigger puzzle for Quentin to solve. The more time he spends trying to figure her out, the further away Margo is from the image Quentin has had of his infamous girl next door. 

Like I said, I went into this book with pretty high expectations. So while I wasn't completely blown away with this story, I still ended up enjoying it. Quentin and his friends are the perfect people to go through everything that happens in this story. Seriously, Q's personality is perfect and he has this image of Margo in his mind that he's so infatuated with. We've all had ideas about someone from afar, so he's really easy to connect with. Then, his two best friends are crazy and absolutely lovable, and they add so much more to the story. They're the perfect sidekicks to Q and his adventure to discover just exactly who Margo is. 

But getting to Margo, I wasn't all that big of a fan of her. Maybe it's because she's this mysterious girl who infatuates the guys, but I don't really see what the big deal with her is. To me, she's whiny and selfish, and she really only cares about what happens in her own life with no regard for anyone else. And the way she reacted in the end? Seriously? I guess it's good that this book figured out a way to defy the expectations of how we actually want Margo to be and exposed how life really does turn out in those situations. Not everything ends wrapped up in a big shiny bow, and this book definitely doesn't end that way either. 

While Paper Towns was a really good read that's unlike anything I've ever read, Margo bothered me too much to give this one five stars. The story was really entertaining, though, and all of the other characters were fantastic. This one really delved into identities and perceptions of people you think you know, but really have no idea about. I sped through this in two days because it's the kind of book you find yourself not wanting to put down. So in the end, I'd say you should definitely try this one out.