Review: Paper Towns by John Green

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Plot

Quentin is in the last year of high school and he’s been in love with Margo Roth Speigelman since he was a young boy.  A few weeks before graduation he has a visitor in the middle of the night.  It’s Margo and she needs his help on an all-night road trip of revenge and mischievousness.

But the day after, Margo isn’t at school, or the day after or the day after that and Quentin begins to wonder if she’s ever going to return.  Plagued with this idea he starts to investigate her disappearance and discovers various clues that she has left to help him.  With the help of his friends, Radar, Ben and Lacy, Quentin goes on a quest to find her.

Good points

A friend of mine once said to me that every good book or film has a road trip which I would definitely have to agree with because, without a doubt, Quentin and Margo’s road trip was the best part of the book.  The pranks were excellent and their relationship in those pages was simply wonderful.

(HERE’S A SPOILER)...

I also loved the ending; despite the fact that Quentin was truly in love with her, he made the decision to leave her, to let them carry on with their lives individually because he didn’t want to give up everything for one person which was a nice change to the usual ‘I’ll abandon everything for the one I love’ trend that YA romance novels usually follow.

Bad points

My biggest criticism was that it was just typical John Green.  Innocent boy falls in love with troubled, adventurous girl who may or may not feel the same way about him – it was just the story of Miles and Alaska retold.

(AND HERE’S ANOTHER SPOILER)...

The story, in my mind, considerably lagged in the middle.  The book was split into 3 parts.  The first (the road trip) was a firecracker.  The third was also fabulous; Quentin and his friends hit the road to go to Margo’s hideout and the speech between the characters was fantastically written.  But, unfortunately, the second part really lagged as it was so repetitive; it was mainly just Quentin looking for Margo who, it turns out, didn’t really want to be found.

Summary

A good book with beautifully written parts - mainly the road trip and the interaction and relationships between the characters – although the middle section really lacked the excitement of parts one and three.

Rating = 4 stars.

Additional points

I heard that Paper Towns is going to be a movie so I hope that it translates well onto the screens.

I’ve now read three John Green books and I still have mixed views.  I’m going to read The Fault in our Stars next because the trailer looks fab and I also want to see what all the fuss is about!