Paper Towns by John Green

Released: 2010 (My Edition: 2013)
Publishers: Bloomsbury Publishing
Format: Paperback
Pages: 302
My Rating: 5/5

She loVed MysterIes so muCh that She becAme One


Quentin Jacobsen has always loved Margo from afar. So when she climbs through his window to summon him on an all-night road trip of revenge he cannot help but follow. But the next morning, Q turns up at school and Margo doesn't. She's left clues to her disappearance, like a trail of breadcrumbs for Q to follow.

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I absolutely devoured this book. John Green is an amazing writer and has a truly beautiful writing style!! It is definitely one of my favourite stand alone teen fiction novels, alongside The Fault In Our Stars of course, that I have read so far.

One thing that stood out from the beginning was that this novel is told from the perspective of Quentin, or Q. It's kind of a like a true stream of consciousness flowing from the mind of Q; there are some funny moments in his thoughts where I found myself sitting there and agreeing with him. He was a very adorable, hopeless romantic, character who is clearly infatuated with Margo from their friendship at a young age. Margo is the complete opposite to Q and is beyond a doubt my favourite character. I love her list and her creative way of seeking revenge, and how the mysteries that she loved so much aided her in becoming one. Her eleven things to do before the night is over is quite hilarious; her demand to break and enter into SeaWorld and their disruption due to a snake is an incredible moment where you can't help but feel totally engrossed in the novel and feel like an extra character along for the ride.

Q's friends are hilarious characters too; Ben is a little pervy, or cringey, calling girls honey bunnies, but he is funny when he attends the party. However I think Radar steals the show with his fear of revealing his parents hobby to his girlfriend Angela (no spoilers but their collection is hilarious), alongside other small acts that make their adventure to find Margo enjoyable and humorous. The trio truly show a innocent high school friendship.

The groups adventure in searching for Margo is one thing of the novel which really stood out for me. Their race against time to drive up to Agloe, find Margo, and be back with enough time to be ready for prom is something which brought suspense and excitement to the narrative. Especially the moments when they had to stop for petrol, or gas, and everyone had a certain role to fulfil in their limited time at each stop. This midst of hilarity brought a lighter tone to the mystery of the disappearance of Margo. I think like The Fault In Our Stars John Green places a metaphor or moral to his stories and this one centres around the idea of strings and how far they can be stretched before they break. As the readers we witness a crucial event for the two young characters, young Quentin and Margo, which hang above them throughout their lives to which becomes relevant as to why Margo is the person she is. Yet this idea of strings and breaking shows us that we think we know people when in fact we know only what they want to show us, case in point is the mysterious Margo Roth Spiegelman here when at the end we, the readers, realise that we will not get the happy ending we might have been thinking about. Which is another great point that Green has made, in our hopes of a happy ending he flipped that idea and made it almost realistic, shattering our hopeless expectations.

Going back to Green's writing style I loved how the book was divided into hours as opposed to chapters. We get given hours before Margo disappears, and hours from finding Margo, as they trek up the East Coast of America in search of her and this paper town. This book had a mixture of everything which I believe will appeal to most people, its happy, funny, sad, mysterious, suspenseful and all together an adventure in itself.

Enjoy x


Author's Website:  John Green 
GoodReads:  Paper Towns 

Available in most book stores and online now.