Review: Paper Towns

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Published: 2008
Pages: 306
My Rating: 4/5

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life--dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge--he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues--and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew. Printz medalist John Green returns with the brilliant wit and searing emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers. Enigmatic 
Margo is dramatically captured in a unique dual-cover treatment.


I have very recently fallen in love with John Green's writing, after only having read Looking for Alaska. So, as you can imagine, I jumped to start on Paper Towns. I was not in any way disappointed in Paper Towns. I actually quite enjoyed it. But I couldn't help comparing it to Looking for Alaska.


Paper Towns is set in three parts, the first named The Strings, the second The Grass, and the third The Vessel. The bulk of the story being in the second part, with the first and last being the starting event and climax respectively. I found that this book was actually more a thought-provoking mystery than anything else. And I also loved how the main character, Quentin's, view changed and developed as the book went along. By the third part, you can tell that he is a changed person willing to do a lot more than he would of to begin with.


Quentin was a good solid main character, very much so like Miles from Looking for Alaska. I also found that Margo, Quentin's and the book's focus character, bore some strong similarities to Alaska (from Looking for Alaska, obviously). But I found that I didn't like Margo nearly as much. I think this was because I was seeing her mainly through the thoughts of Quentin for a large majority of the book. 


Friends of Quentin's that are prominent throughout the book are Ben, Radar and Lacey. The four characters together had brilliant and believable chemistry, and was actually one of my favorite parts of the book! Surprisingly, even though he was a bit of an idiot, Ben was my favorite character! I found him and everything he did hilarious! I don't think I laughed so much at a book as I did during some of his highlight scenes. 


During the second part, I got a little bored and I found that solving the mystery didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I think this was to do with the fact that I was more interested in Ben and Radar than I was in Margo. But none the less, it was still very interesting. And the third part was by far my favorite! I loved the ending as it was completely unpredicted in my mind. The events leading up to the very end during the third part was my favorite part of the book!


Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was a quite light-hearted, but also very thought-provoking. With well set-up parts and laugh-out-loud parts. I shall be looking forward to reading John Green's next novel (most likely Will Grayson, Will Grayson).