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A review by gracenextdoor
Paper Towns by John Green
5.0
Quentin Jacobsen has lived his whole life in Florida. He spends most of his days hanging out with his friends and thinking about his lifelong neighbor and childhood friend, Margo Spiegelman. She's the girl every girl is jealous of and every guy wants to be with. Quentin is in love with her, but he never dreams that she would pop into his window one night, demanding he drive the getaway car for a night of revenge.
Quentin imagines that night of staying out all night and exacting revenge on their enemies would change his life, but it doesn't. Instead, Margo doesn't show up to school. Not that day, or for several weeks after. Believing she left clues for him to follow, Quentin enlists his friends to help search for Margo, the realMargo, in the last few weeks of their senior year of high school.
I've been reflecting on this book for the last few days since I finished it. While many people call it formulaic and a copy of [b: Looking for Alaska|99561|Looking for Alaska|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394798630s/99561.jpg|919292] and [b: The Fault In Our Stars|11870085|The Fault in Our Stars|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360206420s/11870085.jpg|16827462], I find all three of these books to be completely different. Yes, they're all about young people finding their footing in the world, [b: Paper Towns|6442769|Paper Towns|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349013610s/6442769.jpg|3364505] distinguishes itself as a story about making choices, and seeing people for who they really are.
There's a reason [a: John Green|1406384|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1353452301p2/1406384.jpg] is so popular and his books are critically acclaimed: he's a fantastic writer. His books so perfectly encapsulate what it is to be a teenager, to be confused and looking for who you are. In Quentin's search for Margo, he learns more about the girl he's looking for, and reflects on how he may not really know who she is at all. It's not one night, but the journey afterward, that changes him, and how he looks at the world.
When I read this book, it brought up a lot of similar feelings I had when I graduated high school. Paper Towns captures those feelings of being young and feeling like nothing can stop you. In the end, I found it to be a moving story about how you can know someone and not really see who they really are. It's a story about what it means to leave, to pull up your roots, and say goodbye to a place, or a time, or a former self.
Quentin imagines that night of staying out all night and exacting revenge on their enemies would change his life, but it doesn't. Instead, Margo doesn't show up to school. Not that day, or for several weeks after. Believing she left clues for him to follow, Quentin enlists his friends to help search for Margo, the realMargo, in the last few weeks of their senior year of high school.
I've been reflecting on this book for the last few days since I finished it. While many people call it formulaic and a copy of [b: Looking for Alaska|99561|Looking for Alaska|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394798630s/99561.jpg|919292] and [b: The Fault In Our Stars|11870085|The Fault in Our Stars|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360206420s/11870085.jpg|16827462], I find all three of these books to be completely different. Yes, they're all about young people finding their footing in the world, [b: Paper Towns|6442769|Paper Towns|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349013610s/6442769.jpg|3364505] distinguishes itself as a story about making choices, and seeing people for who they really are.
There's a reason [a: John Green|1406384|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1353452301p2/1406384.jpg] is so popular and his books are critically acclaimed: he's a fantastic writer. His books so perfectly encapsulate what it is to be a teenager, to be confused and looking for who you are. In Quentin's search for Margo, he learns more about the girl he's looking for, and reflects on how he may not really know who she is at all. It's not one night, but the journey afterward, that changes him, and how he looks at the world.
When I read this book, it brought up a lot of similar feelings I had when I graduated high school. Paper Towns captures those feelings of being young and feeling like nothing can stop you. In the end, I found it to be a moving story about how you can know someone and not really see who they really are. It's a story about what it means to leave, to pull up your roots, and say goodbye to a place, or a time, or a former self.