Heartbreaking: Paper Towns

The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle.

The secretive hue to the novel reeled me to finally spend money on a John Green. I can't say every cent was wasted but about half of it was definitely so. This book is tedious and irritating.

I'd never thought a character, specifically the protagonist - more specifically, Quentin Jacobsen - could aggravate me so much. Hell, I'd never thought a John Green novel could be on the not so good side of weird.

After a night of spray painting and randomly breaking into buildings and parks, Margo Roth Spiegelman simply disappeared without a trace. Or so they - Q, Ben, and Radar - thought.

It was honestly pretty good at first but as the story goes on, the search became an obsession. Who is Margo? developed into: Where the fuck hell is Margo?

And there is Q to blame for all this. He claims that he is meant to find her and bring her back, that he loves her truly. He was so preoccupied by Margo and the reader is so overwhelmed by him. There were definitely moments in which all I want to do is skip, skip, and skip until they actually find Margo.

Special thanks to Radar for knocking some sense into Q at some point.

It isn't all stale and annoying, though. Even though Margo is missing most of the book, Green had created a 'shadow Margo'. It's as if she's just there and those details make her relatable - especially to me. She's adventurous, distressed with an aching for a new world without the paper people. Her wanderlust and the will that comes with it, is what I love most about her.

It's a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all those culs-de-sac, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.

For that, I would commend John Green and also his influential prose. It is undeniable that he really makes you think and reflect.

The middle is a downer but the ending is tragic. My perception of Quentin had been childish; however, the finale changed all that. I was - finally - able to see the maturity in him that's been hidden from the beginning and admittedly, I fell in love.

I fell for the Quentin who made and has sense, for the Quentin who is willing to let go.

My first John Green was unfortunately threaded with great disappointed but I sure am glad that I finished and still managed to enjoy it.

The legendary Margo Roth Spiegelman has disappeared - again. Leaving confusing breadcrumbs to the boy across the street, will she return back home this time?

Author: John Green
Series: stand alone
Published: 22nd of September, 2009 by Speak
Genre: Young Adult > Contemporary
Format: 305 pages, physical copy (paperback)
Source: purchased

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