Eleanor— Paper Towns by John Green

Eleanor Loprest
3rd August 2015

Yes, fangirls, Paper Towns is the only John Green book I have ever read, and right off the bat, I didn't think it was all that great. I mean, it was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. Lately, I've been getting more into YA realistic fiction (which I used to hate with a passion due to the genre's tendency to incorporate tragic romance whenever possible), and I've definitely read better. This one showed a bit of that unfortunate classic incorporation, but I'll write a review about it anyway. For anyone who hasn't read it, the book follows a teenaged boy named Quentin, who lives next door to an adventurous girl called Margo Roth Spiegelman and has had a crush on her for as long as he can remember. Though the two don't interact much, one night, Margo climbs through Q's bedroom window into his life, dressed like a ninja and armed with a complex, night-long revenge plan she needs Q's help to execute. When he returns to school the next day, Quentin expects things to be different between him and Margo, only to discover that she has vanished, leaving a trail of clues for Q to follow. As he delves deeper into the mystery of Margo's disappearance, Q's image of Margo is shattered, and he realizes he doesn't know anything about this enigma of a girl.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read Paper Towns, STOP READING NOW. I do not want to be responsible for ruining the story for you. Please, work with me here. Also stop reading if you haven't read, and want to read, the adult book The Round House by Louise Erdrich.

During one part of the book, when the car Q and friends are driving to go find Margo nearly crashes into a cow, I was terrified for a second that the kids would all die and the story would be over. This may seem completely illogical, but it is an idea planted in my head by a moment in a book of my aunt's that I read the end of, The Round House by Louise Erdrich. In the end of this book, a teen and his friends, who are driving a car on a trip, crash. Some of the children are hospitalized, and some die. Then the book ends. So you can understand my concern when I connected the two moments.

While I didn't like Paper Towns all that much, I might recommend it to people who enjoy following the clues in a story along with the characters, although I fit that description, and unless you've skipped every other line reading this review, I'm sure you know I don't like it much. However, I would definitely recommend Paper Towns to any poetic spirit who really likes to philosophize about human nature, metaphors about which come up several times in the story, expressing different ideas. Even if you think the story is boring, the metaphors will hold your interest.

6.5/10

Thanks for Reading!

—E. Loprest