Review: Paper Towns

Spoilers will be present.

My Rating: 8-8.5 / 10



So, I started reading Paper Towns on Sunday night. I read about half of the book and then went to sleep. I woke up today (Monday), drove to school and read. Then on my hour break before lunch I read some more. After I was finished with class and went back to campus since I stayed late for tutoring today, I finished the book while sitting in my car in the parking lot.

I could not put the book down. I was already contemplating life by the end of the prologue, on page eight of the book. Then the whole string metaphor pulled me further in on page 58.

This book is divided into three major parts (not counting the prologue). Each part is a metaphor that the main character Quentin or Q uses to help himself understand Margo Roth Spielgelman, his neighbor who has gone missing. The parts, in order, are The Strings, The Grass, and The Vessel. I won't be able to fully explain these and do justice to them because John Green books require rereading for me to completely understand them. I can read them the first time and only pick up on half the deep stuff he talks about. Heck, I probably still don't understand everything in TFioS and I've reread it like four times.

This book, though. It was slightly freaky because it is a sort of mystery (I was reading around 11 pm, when no one else in my house was awake). It was captivating because you don't really know if Margo Roth Spielgelman is alive or if Q would find her in some psuedodivision because Q wasn't sure himself. I could see it both ways. Although, I knew Margo Roth Spielgelman didn't die based on photos posted by other John Green book pages, I really thought for a bit that she did.

It was funny and I probably laughed when I wasn't meant to and despite the unfortunate uses of a word that I am not comfortable with, I really did like this book.

Something about John Green books just really gets you thinking about life. And that is why I also plan to read An Abundance of Katherines eventually. I'm not sure about Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Let it Snow because he was a co-author on those books.

The ending. So Q, Ben, Radar, and Lacey finally get to the paper town of Agloe, New York. The concept I know about for sure, in the literal sense anyway, is the concept of a "paper town." A paper town is a made-up city on maps that mapmakers use to know when people copy their maps. Still thinking through all the not literal stuff. Margo Roth Spielgelman is upset at the group at first for finding her when she didn't want to be found. The trail of clues that Margo Roth Spielgelman had left for Q was meant to only lead him to the abandoned Osprey minimall where Margo Roth Spielgelman used to go to plan stuff in her black notebook. After the rest of the group leaves, and it's just Margo Roth Spielgelman and Q, we start to understand why she did what she did to leave because Q finally sees the real Margo Roth Spielgelman, not the imagined one.

The very end of the book is Margo Roth Spielgelman and Q saying goodbye and going their separate ways; Margo Roth Spielgelman to New York City and Q back home. I did not expect this ending, every though this is a John Green book. I wanted them to be together so they have someone who understands them in a way that no one else does, but the ending made sense to me.


~Jasmine

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