iReview: Paper Towns by John Green

Time for another John Green book review.

Yaaaaay

Now I’m aware that this has been around since 2008 but I just read it last week and since the movie recently came out I decided a review would be appropriate.

Like 90% of all the books I have read, I borrowed this one from my friend, the same friend who lent me TFIOS and hated it. Apparently she had read Looking For Alaska and had loved it, then had gotten the rest of John’s books and they didn’t have the same effect. She couldn’t even read all of Paper Towns, deeming it as ‘too boring’.Oh well, I still win.

The book had been sitting in my closet for a couple of weeks during which I was rereading Harry Potter. But then we decided that we should go see the movie and it was in three days but I couldn’t see the movie without having read the book first! That goes completely against my life philosophy. Anyway.

I started reading the book in the afternoon. I had to read 100 pages a day to finish it before we go to the movies. 

In the end, we couldn’t make it to the movies. But that didn’t matter because i had finished the book in less than 24 hours. I couldn’t put it down.

It is divided in three parts. The Strings, the Grass and the Vessel. Each of these is a metaphor about life and what connects people, that the characters discover throughout the book. And each of these 3 parts contained some of the best things I like about books.

The first part was hugely entertaining and I read it in a snap. I just love this sort of planned-revenge-journey-trip-craziness type of books. 

The second part was also great. It was about the disappearence of Margo and Q’s quest to find her through the clues she had left him. This was the mystery part of the novel, and I love mystery, as you could tell by my Perfectionists review, so I loved this.

And the third part is a typical roadtrip, which reminded me of the one in An Abundance Of Katherines (yet another John Green novel). But this one was even better. And the ending was very intriguing.

I totally expected it, and would have liked it better if it didn’t end the way it did. Give me a really sad ending for once. But despite that, the conversation the characters had was very interesting, even though it was a bit preachy and rant-y and unrealistic, although I have gotten used to it in John’s novels. I also really loved the last sentence.

I loved Q, but I thought Margo was a bit too much at some points.

Just like with An Abundance of Katherines, I found the best friend character too repulsive. I mean seriously? Honeybunnies, MILF jokes and a whole chapter about his pee? Stop it Ben. I don’t even know how he got Lacey. I liked Radar a lot more, partly because I thought he was kinda like me.

I recommend this book to all teens and John Green fans. It’s great!

Rating: 4/5 Stars.