PAPER TOWNS by John Green | Book Review

   

Paper Towns by John Green
Publication Date: October 16, 2008
Publisher: Dutton
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Rating: ★★★★

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificent Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. When their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Margo has disappeared. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Embarking on an exhilarating adventure to find her, the closer Q gets, the less he sees the girl he thought he knew. - Goodreads

"It's so hard to leave-until you leave.
And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world...
Leaving feels too good, once you leave."

We all leave eventually. No matter who and what we are, or where we’re from, we will someday and somehow leave our comfort zones or the norm of our lives to find ourselves a place in this world. Some people take their time into actually doing it. They spent much time planning and scheming on how they should gloriously plow into life. Some tried a few times before succeeding, by accepting that their heavy butts are beginning to be a burden to their family and to the economy.

Then, others are used to having things come to them in a rush; and when it’s not fast enough they go for it instead… Such is Margo Roth Spiegelman and many other teenagers out there who cannot wait to be themselves without the restriction of the norm. My dear nephew, Jaff, calls it emancipation. This is perfectly normal; it’s a matter of how they are properly motivated and inspired. They should be equipped, so as not to become scattered dandelions, gliding aimlessly waiting where the wind will blow them. Unfortunately for Margo, she has uninspired parents to motivate her. They are like the paper cut-outs Margo described, who boxed themselves inside this very peculiar thing called normal life. They regard Margo's actions as rebellion.

"It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting,
and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined."

Margo, on the other hand, sees life as a colorful journey filled with dark abandoned buildings, knee-high grasses, endless road, moonlit roof, and plenty of exhilarating risks. But all this is unknown to her family and friends. All her life, she has coated herself with a shell of Margo Stuff- the cool ones. It then became difficult for her to remove her coating and be herself. So the only option is to leave it all behind. But there is still one string attached to this papergirl – Quentin Jacobsen. She wants Q to know her; understand her; love her for who she is inside, no matter how crooked and unreasonable that Margo may be.

"The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle.”

Q braved the challenge- he took the journey and accepted the would be consequences of it. Little did he know that this journey will not only lead him to Margo but discover the Margo hiding within too. Thus, making him aware of his own capabilities and weaknesses. Knowing that he will succeed in finding his place in the world someday soon. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll find Margo there as well.

This book gets you to think about the idea of a person and the actual being of a person. Because, of course, it is rather unfair to be thought of as (just) a mere idea. My favorite part is the Vessel. It made me laugh out loud listening to Ben’s pissing-in-beer-bottle scene. I had fun with this; I do hope you will too.

The audiobook narration was brilliantly performed by Dan John Miller for Brilliance Audio.


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About the Author:

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.

In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website.

*Originally posted here.