REVIEW: Paper Towns by John Green

April 22, 2013




















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.




Wow what do I say about Paper Towns, it was not at all what I was expecting. You might know that I am a nerd fighter who is obsessed with John Green, the genius who tore out my heart in The Fault In Our Stars. This is my 3rd JG book and every time it continues to amaze me how incredible his writing is. I was hesitant to read this book because the synopsis confused me! Because for some reason I had the idea that a boy named Quentin climbed out his window and climbed back in as a different person, a female ninja called Margo,*Face Palm*. But I can assure you that when I actually started reading it, it wasn't about a cross-dresser with multiple personalities. Hehe!

Now that I have confessed to you my moment of utter stupidity and reason for hesitation, let's actually talk about my thoughts on the actual book. Paper Towns was a contemporary that had a lot of things, humour, mystery, action, a lot of depth and even PROM. Margo was definitely a character that had a lot of baggage and issues, more then anyone realised which made for an interesting story. I also started liking Margo more when she said:
“Interesting capitalization,' I said.
'Yeah. I'm a big believer in random capitalization. The rules of capitalization are so unfair to words in the middle.” ― John Green, Paper Towns
If you are a old follower you probably would have noticed that I am always randomly capitalising.

Quentin was a likeable & funny character content with his life who is taken on this adventure that was really fun to read. One thing that was really thought-provoking about Paper Towns were all of the quotes, metaphors and poems that were included. They really made me realize about how much we idolise and imagine people and how we can't get a proper appreciation of them until you really get, and know them, flaws included.
“When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.” ― John Green, Paper Towns

Another thing I liked about this book was what i'm going to call the "Prank Scene" as well as "The Road Trip" (which is towards the end of the book) which was really funny. Especially with Ben having to pee all the time. Paper Towns had a great mystery factored in it, all the clues leading towards Margo's disappearance where very clever indeed. Having such great clues and always trying to guess what was happening, I was glad that I was actually pretty pleased with the ending. Thank god there were no cliffhangers, because they are the death of me (especially in stand alone). Overall i'm going to give this a 5/5 because whilst Paper Towns included humour, wit and mystery. John Green was able to throw in some throught-provoking words and depth and for that I commend him.


☆ I just wanted to mention that Lucy from one of my favourite blogs Queen of Contemporary, is celebrating her one year blogoversary, so make sure to stop by. Also I'm planning to do a collaboration with the lovely Sophie from A Day Dreamers World whose blogoversary is also coming up, so stay tuned. ☆
post signature





11 comments

  1. I love all the quotes, they make me smile because I adore John Green, but haven't read this book yet! I'll be definitely doing that soon. Great review!

    Sunny @ Blue Sky Bookshelf

    ReplyDelete
  2. Quentin and Margo sound like characters that I would really enjoy.
    Brandi @ Blkosiner’s Book Blog

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely review! I read this a few weeks ago and thought exactly the same so it's nice to see someone with a review that will echo mine.

    And thank you for the mention! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brilliant review Sunny!
    I'm definitely adding it to my "to-be read" list! <3
    Marian ^_^ x

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just bought a copy of this, and I'm so excited to read it now! Quentin sounds awesome and so does the humor. Great review :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Really brilliant review! Your confession still has me laughing. ;) I do things like that a lot, too! I'm glad you managed to enjoyed this one even though it wasn't about a cross-dresser with multiple personalities. ;) I still need to jump onto the John Green bandwagon soon! I have no idea where to start, though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved Looking For Alaska and TFIOS, but I still haven't got my hands on a copy of this one yet... I may have to raid the library and see if they have it (and An Abundance of Katherines, which I've also heard much about) there... Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is a great review, I'm actually reading it right now, and really enjoying it so far!

    ~Tilly @ www.hardcoreheroines.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Sunny! New follower from Little Bookworm Reviews. Great review!

    Just wanted to ask, how did you get the scroll when you did "button swaps" and "series I love"? I can't seem to figure that out.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm looking forward to reading John Green's other books after I finished TFIOS (even though I was a bit disappointed cause I had too many expectations for that book...) Now I'm reading Looking for Alaska. Paper Towns sounds great. John Green's writing is just awesome. :)

    Kezia @ Pansycake Reader

    ReplyDelete
  11. Brilliant review! I cannot explain how much I loved this book, and it's perhaps my favourite of John Green's... But I say 'perhaps' as I loved tfios and Looking For Alaska too! :D

    ReplyDelete

Thank for stopping by my small corner of the web, I hope you enjoyed your time here. Feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them. Sending you a thousand lovely days x

© A Sunny Spot. Design by FCD. Header using graphics from Freepik.