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Review: "Paper Towns" by John Green

  • Writer: Holly Jane - Writer
    Holly Jane - Writer
  • Jan 1
  • 5 min read

Genre(s): Romance, Mystery, Young Adult Favourite Quote: "I don't know how I look, but I know how I feel. Young. Goofy. Infinite."


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*** Please note that this review will likely contain spoilers and only reflects my own thoughts and experiences. There is no conflict of interest here. *** I'm about eleven years too late to this party but I've heard that this is a must read more times than I be bothered to count, so here we are! I'm no stranger to John Green, having used to watch the VLOG Brothers series on YouTube many eons ago. I've read three of his other titles: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and The Fault in Our Stars. The latter probably the most well known after the film which was popular with the teens. A lot of Green's book tend to take a similar form, in my opinion, so I go into Paper Towns with the wondering if I will have the same experience or if it will be something fantastically different? Let's break this down shall we? Story We start with a death, or the aftermath of a suicide to be more descriptive. We meet our two young, main characters who unwillingly meet said Mr. Recently Deceased and come to terms with the idea of the finality of death. Quick scene change to present day and we live on the shoulder of Quentin; our male protagonist as he's drafted into Margo Roth Speigelman's antics (you will despise this name eventually). We learn that Quentin and Margo haven't actually really spoken much since their duo suicide find as children and for some reason, Margo then chooses this time to pay real attention to Quentin. After their night filled of semi-illegal activities designed to punish anyone and everyone who ever got under her skin, Margo then disappears after this night. The whole story is then revolved around trying to find her by deciphering obnoxiously ridiculous 'clues' apparently left behind. They follow a clue. They failed to find her. They follow another clue. And another. And another. Fail, rinse and repeat. Again and again. I didn't really care if they found Margo or not. The most exciting part of the story for me, was the character development between Quentin, his friends and the 'popular' crowd. Setting Set in Orlando. Mostly Quentin's house and a weird abandoned mall that Margo happened to live in for a bit. Aside from this, we didn't really see a lot more on of typical daily life - however I did enjoy the road trip and really felt like cheering when they left the mundane confines of this town I personally don't know anything about. The paper towns references did take a bit of time to get my head around, but I kind of got it in the end-ish. Characters My main issue with all Green's books that I've read, is that the characters are all very same-y. You've got the main protagonist, who's usually a male nerdy figure with some sort of special quirk about him and very smart. Then you've got the female interest who's always the out and out ballsy girl of his dreams who's the total polar opposite and has the moral structure of beating to her own drums. Lastly, you've always got one or two comic relief characters who are the support system, but still throw out one liners and some sort of remark about 'man I need a girl'. There's always a character in one of Green's books that seems to have a serious case of verbal diorrhoea. In which case, it's Margo Roth bloody Spiegelman. That on more than a few occasions, I just wanted her to give me a few minutes of peace to digest the situation. The main flaw for me that I couldn't get past is that Margo really manipulates Quentin's love for her. She's not an idiot. She knows that he will do literally anything for her. So when she appears on his windowsill one night with her ultimate plan, despite having not had a real conversation with him for years, she knows Quentin is the only one who will admire and support her edgy need for having the last word. Equally annoyingly, Quentin holds her in too high of a regard for what she deserves. Margo does not want to be found, she wants people to be in love with the memory of her. When the group manage to track her down eventually and she responds with rude comments to be met with their disappointment at her greeting, I felt like this was the realest point in the story. But no, this quickly changes again to the Margo show. The Margo is so bloody amazing show. My respect for Quentin just disappears really and I find myself wanting to shake him silly and tell him that this romantic idea of his friend, is only an ideal, not the reality. Language Typical John Green conversation that involves teenagers/young adults speaking about topics and theoretical philosophy way above their heads for the age group. A little unrealistic. Theme I don't want to refer to this as a romance because it's Quentin being unwillingly manipulated into thinking Margo is a God or an angel in fleshy form. OK. Maybe not as dramatic, but it very well may be. I would class this as a young adult/coming of age tale. PROS + Quentin's parents are surprisingly decent + Two words: black santas + Radar was the least annoying secondary character CONS + Although very intelligent, Quentin is a love sick idiot for following on this crazy chicken chase. Honestly, he deserved better + Margo Roth Speigelman is a terribly dull character and totally in love with herself. This makes for such a meaningless and annoying ending + The string of clues were really out of the box and just ridiculous for both a teenager to create and others to even begin to follow! + The repetitive nature of here's a clue, here's a location, no Margo, next clue. And so on. + The paper towns was a nice gimmick, but I think fed into the overall story a little weirdly Conclusion Perhaps I'm just not someone who enjoys John Green books, which is a shame because I genuinely like him as a person. The repetition of the overall theme of this book in line with his other titles are as follows: totally unattainable girl. Nerdy main character. Comic relief nerdy friend and some kind of coming of age romance. I really didn't enjoy reading this and it was honestly a slog for me to get to the end. Although this just wasn't the story for me, I acknowledge that it still remains a fairly popular book and film for some others. Overall I award Paper Towns: 2 out of 5 magical unicorns 🦄🦄


About the author:

John Green is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, and Turtles All the Way Down. He is also the coauthor, with David Levithan, of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. He was the 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Green’s books have been published in more than 55 languages and over 24 million copies are in print.

Check out John Green’s social media:

Facebook You can also purchase a copy of Paper Towns here.

As always, I’m taking requests for reads I should review next. Feel free to drop me a line via the site or my social media pages. Thanks for reading! HJ

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HOLLY JANE - AUTHOR

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