So any of you who have been following this blog (wow thanks if you have :D) may have noticed that all my reviews so far have been for John Green novels. This is because I have been undergoing a grand introduction to his genius and since the person who is lending the books to me is leaving soon, I have to read through them without gaps in between. If you are not a fan then I apologise and I promise to read someone else soon!
So - ‘Paper Towns’. This is another ‘Young Adult’ story by John Green. It is set in Orlando, Florida in an area of samey Milton Keynes-esque new-builds (I will be using British-isms, suck it up). The main character is Quentin ‘Q’ who lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman, a sort of mix of Quin Fabray and Ramona Flowers (I bet no one else mixes a Glee reference with Scott Pilgrim). He developed a crush which quickly became an infatuation with this girl after they shared the trauma of finding a dead body together as kids, and this quickly envelops him. He also has two close friends: Ben, an extroverted nerdy kid and Radar, a cooler yet still nerdy kid who is obsessed with editing an online encyclopedia called Omnictionary (so blatently not Wikipedia…).
The basic premise is that Margo, who has always been dreaming of skipping town - and has already done so several times - disappears just before graduation from high school, shortly after leading Q on a whirlwind adventure of revenge against those that ‘wronged’ her including her cheating boyfriend, her ‘traitorous’ friends as well as tying up some other loose ends. Her disappearance terrifies Q who does not know whether she wants him to find her, or whether she is dead. Thus the book becomes a mystery story: Where is Margo Roth Spiegelman? Who is Margo Roth Spiegelman? Where did she go? Why did she go? Is she dead? Does she want to be found?
There are numerous themes within this books, and many of them are shared between books. The first is the *sigh* ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ character (I hate that word and all of its sparkly pony dustiness). Like Alaska Young from ‘Looking for Alaska’, the main character is obsessed with this mystical entity tied up in a girl. Like Romeo’s obsession with Rosaline (yes I can relate things to Shakespeare), the main character’s infatuation is without serious base. It is the obsession with the idea of the girl rather than the girl itself. Margo is this force of nature, a character who transcends her identity because of the she legend built up.
So - ‘Paper Towns’. This is another ‘Young Adult’ story by John Green. It is set in Orlando, Florida in an area of samey Milton Keynes-esque new-builds (I will be using British-isms, suck it up). The main character is Quentin ‘Q’ who lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman, a sort of mix of Quin Fabray and Ramona Flowers (I bet no one else mixes a Glee reference with Scott Pilgrim). He developed a crush which quickly became an infatuation with this girl after they shared the trauma of finding a dead body together as kids, and this quickly envelops him. He also has two close friends: Ben, an extroverted nerdy kid and Radar, a cooler yet still nerdy kid who is obsessed with editing an online encyclopedia called Omnictionary (so blatently not Wikipedia…).
The basic premise is that Margo, who has always been dreaming of skipping town - and has already done so several times - disappears just before graduation from high school, shortly after leading Q on a whirlwind adventure of revenge against those that ‘wronged’ her including her cheating boyfriend, her ‘traitorous’ friends as well as tying up some other loose ends. Her disappearance terrifies Q who does not know whether she wants him to find her, or whether she is dead. Thus the book becomes a mystery story: Where is Margo Roth Spiegelman? Who is Margo Roth Spiegelman? Where did she go? Why did she go? Is she dead? Does she want to be found?
There are numerous themes within this books, and many of them are shared between books. The first is the *sigh* ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ character (I hate that word and all of its sparkly pony dustiness). Like Alaska Young from ‘Looking for Alaska’, the main character is obsessed with this mystical entity tied up in a girl. Like Romeo’s obsession with Rosaline (yes I can relate things to Shakespeare), the main character’s infatuation is without serious base. It is the obsession with the idea of the girl rather than the girl itself. Margo is this force of nature, a character who transcends her identity because of the she legend built up.
Another theme is death. This is less obvious than in ‘Fault in Our Stars’ or ‘Looking for Alaska’, but it definitely there. There is 1) the dead man at the start of the story, 2) there are the dead/unused new-builds that Margo directs Q to 3) the near death experience that Q experiences towards the end of the book and 4) the fact that at various points the characters believe Margo to have committed suicide. It is not all-pervasive as a theme, but it always in the background.
Finally though, and this is a true shocker in a book about teenagers about to graduate from high school, this book is really for me about growing up. Q’s friends in the story all seem to be people developing much needed social skills, leaving their insular group of friends and interacting more with the wider school community. Q’s voyage of discovery is about finding out who the girl of his fantasies really is and dispelling the idealised portrait he has of her. And Margo… well there is no way of going into detail without spoiling, but it is rather obvious on reading the book.
So to my views. Well I enjoyed this the least out of the Green books that I have read so far for a couple of good reasons, chief amongst which is that I really did not like the main character. I think Green never quite convinced me why this boy would be so fixated on chasing the girl; why would he give up so much of his time and sanity on chasing her? I get the fact that he idolises and idealises her, and that he thinks that she may be dead but even so, it just never made sense to me. I did not related to him in the same way that I was able to with Pudge or Hazel. I also just felt the story was a hodge-podge of different ideas that didn’t quite click. The 3 sections are very differently paced and styled in varying ways which made the narrative a little disjointed. Overall I think Green tried to accomplish too many things in one book. HOWEVER, that is not to say I did not enjoy the book. It still had those wonderful John Green touches in the narrative and dialogue that cannot fail to make you laugh, and the final part of the book is a masterful example of how to tie up a complex mystery story in a way that is very satisfying and edifying.
Finally though, and this is a true shocker in a book about teenagers about to graduate from high school, this book is really for me about growing up. Q’s friends in the story all seem to be people developing much needed social skills, leaving their insular group of friends and interacting more with the wider school community. Q’s voyage of discovery is about finding out who the girl of his fantasies really is and dispelling the idealised portrait he has of her. And Margo… well there is no way of going into detail without spoiling, but it is rather obvious on reading the book.
So to my views. Well I enjoyed this the least out of the Green books that I have read so far for a couple of good reasons, chief amongst which is that I really did not like the main character. I think Green never quite convinced me why this boy would be so fixated on chasing the girl; why would he give up so much of his time and sanity on chasing her? I get the fact that he idolises and idealises her, and that he thinks that she may be dead but even so, it just never made sense to me. I did not related to him in the same way that I was able to with Pudge or Hazel. I also just felt the story was a hodge-podge of different ideas that didn’t quite click. The 3 sections are very differently paced and styled in varying ways which made the narrative a little disjointed. Overall I think Green tried to accomplish too many things in one book. HOWEVER, that is not to say I did not enjoy the book. It still had those wonderful John Green touches in the narrative and dialogue that cannot fail to make you laugh, and the final part of the book is a masterful example of how to tie up a complex mystery story in a way that is very satisfying and edifying.
7/10
P.S. I look forward to my final John Green read, but I think I will take a break first… what to read next??
Favourite Quotes- “If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.”
- “Peeing is like a good book in that it is very, very hard to stop once you start.”
P.S. I look forward to my final John Green read, but I think I will take a break first… what to read next??
Favourite Quotes- “If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.”
- “Peeing is like a good book in that it is very, very hard to stop once you start.”
- “Those of us who frequent the band room have long suspected that Becca maintains her lovely figure by eating nothing but the souls of kittens and the dreams of impoverished children.”
- “Poetry is just so emo,’ he said. ‘Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul.”
- “Angela, I really like you, but there’s something you need to know: when we go to my house and hook up, we’ll be watched by the twenty-four hundred eyes of twelve hundred black Santas.”
- “As far as I can tell, there are two basic (kissing) rules: 1. Don’t bite anything without permission. 2. The human tongue is like wasabi: it’s very powerful, and should be used sparingly.”
- “Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.”
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