BOOK REVIEW: 'Paper Towns'

Paper Towns

By: John Green 

John Green is one of my favorite authors (DFTBA for all you nerdfighters out there), and a while ago I got a signed box set of all four of his books, with Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars signed. In between reading challenges with my friends, I've been working my way though the box. For our latest challenge, I got assigned his third book, Paper Towns. 

Have you ever read a book and there is just that one song that seems to fit so perfectly that you can listen to nothing else while reading it? Do I have any Phillip Phillips fans as readers? Off of his album "The World From the Side of the Moon", one of my favorite songs is "Gone, Gone, Gone", partially because of how it just seems to click with this book for me. 

It's the story of Q, a senior in the last few months of his high school career, and after a whirlwind night of hysterical revenge with the girl he's been in love with for years, Margo Roth Spiegelman (I use her full name because that is how she is refered to for most of the book). This is personally one of my favorite parts of the book because of the sheer awesomeness and how jealous I am that they actually had the guts to do it. 

But the morning after, Margo has run away without a trace. Well, at least it appears that way to everyone but Q. With his keen knowledge of Margo and her tricks, he works with every bit of his wit to try and track her down and bring her home. 

Overall, the book is pretty good as far as I'm concerned. It got a little confusing at points, but the comedy made up for that. We go anywhere from swords made from beer cans, to record breaking collection of Santa figures, this book will have you cracking up from start to finish. 

Probably one of the most quoted lines from the novel is "What a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than just a person," refering to Margo. Everyone in the novel, and even the reader for a time, sees Margo as being some godlike creature with endless confidence and guts. In reality she is a querky girl who capitilizes Words in the Middle of sentences because of How unfair it Is that only The ones at the Beginning ever get Upper case priviledges, or loves Walt Whitman and classic music. The longer the novel goes the more you learn about Margo and the more real of a character she becomes. 

Pages: 305

Read In: 2 weeks maybe?

Rating: 7/10

Ages: 12-up