Paper Towns
By John Green
A Review
I have realised that my reviews are not really reviews by definition, but rather my thoughts while reading... I suppose that is what a review is, but mine seem to be a bit more thrown randomly together and slightly slapdash than other reviews I have read.
Never mind.
Today I have a review of Paper Towns by John Green. As usual, I can't be bothered to tell you about the book myself, so I am going to use the blurb to do so.
Quentin Jacobsen has always loved Margo Roth Spiegelman, for Margo (and her adventures) are the stuff of legend at their high school. So when she one day climbs through his window and summons him on an all-night road trip of revenge he cannot help but follow.
But the next day Margo doesn't come to school and a week later she is still missing. Q soon learns that there are clues in her disappearance... and they are for him. But as he gets deeper into the mystery - culminating in another awesome road trip across America - he becomes less sure of who and what he is looking for.
Sounds good, right? I will admit, though, that I didn't actually read the blurb properly before buying it. As always, there is a story behind my obtaining this book.
If you have an Amazon account, you'll get those emails saying 'Amazon Recommends' wherein they recommend you anything remotely related to anything you've ever looked at. For example, I bought my brother a CD for Christmas (it was a genre of music I don't even like) and I'm still getting emails recommending me CDs from that genre.
Anyway, I got an email and I clicked on it because I am always curious as to what Amazon thinks I want. In the email, was this book, with the price listed as £3.65. I was confused and clicked on the link, thinking it must be the ebook version. Nope, paperback, £3.65. Hurry, only 2 left in stock.
The 'hurry' panicked me and, after briefly skim reading the blurb, I put it in my basket and bought it. No shipping cost, I bought a brand new paperback for £3.65. I am still a little shocked about this fact. Sadly, I checked, this is no longer the price, but it's still a good deal!
Time for the actual review part, I think.
I read a majority of this book on a Friday, but then I had to eat dinner and didn't pick it up again until the next day. You might hate me, but I folded down three corners in this book and bent the spine so it would stay open so I could drink tea at the same time as reading it. I know, I'm a terrible person.
This book starts with Quentin, Q, as a normal person, going to school, with a record of never having skipped a day. Then his neighbour, Margo, climbs in his window and drags him off on an all night adventure of revenge and fun. Q hasn't properly hung out with Margo since they were kids, but, obviously, he has a crush on her. How could you not? She's free spirited, pretty, does anything she wants. But no one really knows her, and those that do know different versions of her, which begs the question – who is the real Margo?
After the epic night of revenge and technically not breaking the law (they never broke and entered, they broke some places and entered others, but never both at the same time) Margo goes missing and it seems that only Q is particularly worried about where she has gone.
Margo has gone missing before, but she has left a trail, a trail that seems to be for Q alone to follow and find her.
For the short while that Margo is in the book, I can't tell if I love her or hate her. She does what she wants and seems like a fun person to be around, but she also pushes Q into doing things he doesn't want to and makes fun of him when he panics about the things she has dragged him into. She can be really quite mean, but at the same time it almost seems like she is hiding behind a personality she has created for herself.
Q seems like a typical teenager who has become obsessed with something. And that something is finding Margo. While trying to find her and follow her obscure clues, he has finals to contend with, as well as typical teenage dramas, such as whether or not he has access to a car or the fact that his friends are too excited about things such as prom and girlfriends to help him all the time.
There is a fantastic section of this book, one of my favourite bits, where Q and a group of his friends end up on a road trip, on a race against time, and the journey is eventful, entertaining and incredibly stressful to read about. They are on such a tight time limit, even though that time limit is about 22 hours, that any stops for fuel and snacks are carried out with such precision and chaos that it is rather humorous to read about!
The adventure this book takes you on is wonderful to read about and has made me very much want to buy Song of Myself by Walt Whitman, as it plays a key role in the story. I am keeping a list of all the books I want to buy and in the last week or so, it has increased by about half an A5 page. My bank account hates me already.
I think that is all I have to say about the book right now, I had other thoughts while reading it, but they all seemed to leave my head as soon as I sat down to write this (helpful, right?) so I think I will end it here.
If you've read this book, what are your opinions on it? If you haven't, and you were even a little intrigued by this post, then you should get a copy – I left links further up by the image, I can't be bothered to add them again.
Bye!
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