Paper Towns by John Green: A book review by Poppy Fairy

Title: Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Release date: September 22nd 2009

Released by: Speak

ISBN: 9780142414934

Rating: 4.5/5 fairy wings

Synopsis:

Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs 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 he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...

Review:

Paper Towns is quite possibly my most favourite out of the four JG books I’ve read (this, Looking for Alaska, Abundance of Katherines, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson). What I ultimately loved about Paper Towns, however, is that this isn’t your typical YA novel that I’ve always thought it was. This actually closely resembles Looking for Alaska in ways that the female protagonist is a huge influence to the main protagonist. That said, Paper Towns isn’t a love story, but a story about Quentin Jacobsen’s journey to self-discovery.




Overall, the most popular and talked about character in the book both in Paper Towns-universe and in real life Paper Towns fandom is Margo Roth Spiegelman and truth to be told, Margo played the keyrole in the book but like I said, the story isn’t about Margo per se. John Green used Margo to shape not only our protagonist, Q’s, character but every character in the story. But what’s more amazing is that JG might have “used” Margo to further the plot, but Margo is no mere plot device. She has her own character development and while it’s not as spectacular as Q’s, it was a character growth that could still be perceived as splendidly done.

Another thing I loved about Paper Towns is the characters. The characters are so diversed and easily likable. Well, Margo might be might least favourite but the rest of them are so fun to read about. Q, Radar and Ben are #friendshipgoals but Ben is the funniest and is arguably the best of the three, imo. In fact, I feel like both Ben and Radar shined brighter than Q but this is me being bias. Q had the tendency to be so invested in his quest to find Margo that he could be subconsciously selfish most of the time.

Ever since he was young, Q had this notion of Margo being unattaintable. The amazing things she did and how fearless she was made the whole school population admire her, however it’s only the outside that everyone saw of Margo. Paper Towns is about how Q finds Margo when she went missing but in the process of looking for Margo, Q realized that there are so many things that are more than meets the eye. He didn’t only find Margo but he found himself too. And how the camaraderie he shared with his friends was just all the more strengthened.

Paper Towns reminded me that I not only read books just to pass the time or just because it’s fun, but because there are so many important things in life to learn about. Like I already knew that there are more to people than meet the eyes and we shouldn’t automatically judge them based on what they show us, but sometimes we need books to remind us or reinforce those ideas and for that I’m thankful to John Green for writing Paper Towns.