Review: Paper Towns by John Green

 

Published: October 16th 2008 by Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 305
Part of a Series: No
Read For a Challenge: No
Recommended By: Nerdfighteria
Teaser: "You know your problem, Quentin? You keep expecting people not to be themselves. I mean, I could hate you for being massively unpunctual and for never being interested in anything other than Margo Roth Spiegelman, and for, like, never asking me about how it's going with my girlfriend - but I don't give a shit, man, because you're you. My parents have a shit ton of black Santas, but that's okay. They're them. I'm too obsessed with a reference website to answer my phone sometimes when my friends call, or my girlfriend. That's okay, too. That's me. You like me anyway. And I like you. You're funny, and you're smart, and you may show up late, but you always show up eventually."
In a sentence or so: Realizing fully that no one's life is perfect. Taking a closer look at the person you idolize and seeing that when you thought they were laughing they were actually crying.
*Rating: 10/10
GoodReads Description:
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 Q gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.


1. Type of story: YA Mystery (Free 1 point)
2.Consistency: Weirdness of word choice: Long and sorted VS Long and storied. This happened twice in the story. I am accustomed to the first and John uses the second. This gave me pause while reading but instead of annoying me it enhances a feeling I have for this book. The feeling I get from this book is an intense concentration on word choice. The word choice in this book seems so deliberate that this book stands out to me as a tribute from John to many authors that influenced him and changed his life but at the same time the writing in this book is uniquely John Green. (1 point)
3. Flesh: The characters in this book are more real than many because of the journey they go through imagining each other complexly. The fullness of these personalities is so infiltrating they may make you realize some wrong imaginations you've been making about people around you. This makes everyone more real than they had been to you before. (1 point)
4. Flow: Quick ups and longer downs. The pacing runs the way I would think an investigation would: fast when you discover a clue then frustratingly slow as you try to piece it together in the big scheme of things.(1 point)
5. Character Growth: These characters learn about what's most important to them and confront assumptions they make about people in their lives.  (1 point)
6. A Point/ Purpose/ Journey: Imagining others complexly and knowing the damage caused when we don't. (1 point)
7. Witty Dialogue: These kids play Metaphysical I-Spy, where in what you spy can not actually be seen, enough said.
8. Love: Through admiration, glorification, and finally through the cracks. Friendship in the truest way is found in these pages.  (1 point)
9. Evoke Realistic Images: I will leave you with a couple examples. "Giant white wall of cow" and ""IT IS NOT MY FAULT THAT MY PARENTS OWN THE WORLD'S LARGEST COLLECTION OF BLACK SANTAS.” You can't shake those images, can you? Yeah... read this book.(1 point)
10. Writing/Story telling: Another thought provoking tale from John Green. It will change you if you let it. (1 point)

Reread Worthy: Yes. Good to have around when you're drowning in feelings of "WHY WOULD ANYONE EVER DO THAT?!?!?" You'll need help to imagine them more complexly.
Recommendation: Everyone who has to coexist with other people. Fans of John Green, Maureen Johnson, Markus Zusack, Walt Whitman, ...any writer really, if you like to read you should read this, it's worth your time.

*Click Rating to see post about my 10 aspects of a great book.