Paper Towns

Rating

4 stars

Date Read

17/9/15

Age Group

15+

General Thoughts

"It's beautiful

It's a paper town

Paper houses and paper people

Everything is uglier up close

Not you"

If I had to describe Mr. John Green in a word I would say he's very well-versed (does that count for two?). His words and jokes and innuendos are all very refined and sophisticated. For example the whole point of the book is paper towns. But what does paper town mean? It can mean several things, metaphorically always. And researching it after reading the book was very interesting and helped me understand a couple of inside jokes as well. For example do you know how Margo's dog was called? Marna Mountweasel. Very strange yes. Imagine my surprise upon finding out that it's a synonyme for paper towns...

Main Characters

Margo

Beautiful. Intelligent. Curious about the world. Cynical. Wild. Interesting approach to the world. She might be just another popular girl in a big school with indifferent parents and a couple of mommy issues. But she does know how to make herself look interesting, how to keep her cool, plan intricate hoaxes and weave a mystery around her, drawing people in and being the main character of her story.

Quentin

A boy. A wallflower at school, a band geek without being in a band, cracking boy jokes and playing video games with his guy friends. Obsessed with the girl next door. Margo Roth Spegielman was his miracle and the centre of his world. And he managed to not look too pathetic as he pined for a girl he hadn't spoken to since sixth grade. How? Because he was pretty well versed himself.

Clever and sophisticated in his own boyish way. He couldn't not be, considering his voice was John Green's voice. It was especially interesting to read a book written by guy talking about the world through a guy's eyes. Like a small window into the boy world and what it is going on in their minds when they like a girl. Turns out it's not too different than what goes on in a girl's mind when she likes a boy. Only they're more easily distracted by video games.

Quentin and his guy friends

All very boyish, a bit hormonal and cracking a healthy amount of dirty jokes. Also, questionable hygiene.

It is quite apparent if you read the book: The difference between a girl, vengeful and intelligent (Margo) and a boy, peaceful and clever (Quentin). The supportive characters were all normal high students, teenagers you could meet going down the halls of a high school. There was the backstabbing b*tch (Becca) the cheating idiot (Jase ) the gorgeous, popular girl (Lacey) the intelligent geek (Radar) the weird guy with the best jokes (Ben) the sweet girl (Angela) etc.

Plot & Narrative

The plot and the writing were all very sophisticated (I know, I'm using this word a lot here), save for a few immature guy jokes (that did in fact add to the book since they helped create the high school student background) and the whole story was a big metaphor which I found surprisingly enjoyable. I'll be checking out more of of John Green shortly, after I've had a bit time to shallow the ending of Paper towns (I will not spoil, read it yourself) and spend some quality time with my simple minded yet enjoyable romance novels.

XOXO

Aggie Pearson