Paper Towns Novel Review

Paper Towns is a fantastic, interesting and unique novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I was very eager to read this following how much I loved An Abundance of Katherines, and I decided that I had to read it before I saw the film due to my golden rule: read the book before you watch the film. And this book did not disappoint…

Our protagonist is Quentin 'Q' Jacobsen, whose boring life is turned upside down when the stunning Margo Roth Spiegelman moves in next door. To the young Q, Margo is an adventure. It's all fun and games until one day Margo and Q come across a dead body.

Years later, our two main characters are in high school and have drifted apart. They hardly speak until Margo climbs into Q's bedroom and invites him to join her on a mission of revenge. They have their night of adventure, but when Q wakes up in the morning, Margo has vanished. The main plot follows Q and his friends as they try to uncover the cryptic clues Margo left behind…

This is a very cleverly written plot. The trail of clues gives the book a driving force, something that makes you want to read on. It balances the comedy and the diary-like stories with the mystery brilliantly, by mixing them together. The two are inseparable.
My favourite element of the plot is the three sections. The book is split into three parts, namely The Strings, The Grass and The Vessel. These represent the three metaphors used throughout the book. Each section focuses on one of the metaphors, and it is mentioned in a number of forms. It also sets the atmosphere for each section: The Strings is about breaking, and irreversible change; The Grass is about friends, family and memories; The Vessel is about journeys and final destinations. This was a very clever move that I haven't seen in a YA novel before.

In my opinion, the best thing about this book was the discussion of identity. The book focuses on each character's different idea of Margo, and eventually their realisations that she is just a person like them. There is so much I could say about the importance of the ideals in this book. The metaphors are beautiful, and really interesting. There are some gorgeous phrases that I would love to steal for my own writing. To give you a taster, my favourite quote is this..."It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and constantly misimagined."

John Green has done a remarkable job at balancing the metaphors and philosophical discussions with developed characters and some really funny comedy. Q is relatable as our main character, a teenager who is at a bit of a lost point in his life. He does what most people would do in his situation, and is interesting without being precocious or cringe-worthy. His speeches are really well-written, and reveal a lot about his personality.

Q's best friend Ben was a character I disliked throughout the most part of the book, with his derogatory language and backstabbing personality. However, I think he added drama to the plot, and most readers can relate to having a friend like him. I really liked the character of Radar, Q's other best friend who is more intellectual and into posting on a site meant to be a parody of Wikipedia. In the second half of the book, we get to know Lacey, a former popular person and enemy of the three boys who befriends them and helps in the quest to find Margo. She was a character who I grew to like gradually, but by the end of the book I could see how necessary she was to solving the mystery.

Throughout most of the book, Margo is more of an idea than a character. Everybody has different memories of her, and so sees her differently. Q's idea of Margo evolves through the story, and her character becomes steadily more complex. Even when we discover the real Margo, she is still one of the most complicated characters in YA.

Paper Towns was one of the funniest books I have come across in ages. There is ongoing snarky wit in the first two parts, mainly coming through Q's reactions to the strange things Margo seems to have done. A lot of comic relief also comes through Ben, particularly when he is drunk. Despite this, in my opinion, the funniest part of the book was the road trip towards the end. I won't spoil it, but it is crazily random and had me actually laughing out loud. Not only this, but the book almost has its own language of inside jokes: Black Santas, catfish and beer swords are all involved.

If I had to find a criticism for this book (a hard feat), I would say the plot starts to drag slightly in the middle. There is a period where the clues all slow down a bit, and the humour is lost. That said, it picks up again with a major discovery.

The ending of this book will break your heart. It's sad, but it feels right given the rest of the story. Everything is pulled together. I loved how the metaphors recur throughout the story, making everything flow together.

I've recently been thinking that all John Green books seem to have a common language. I smiled every time I saw references to his other books. For example, the three metaphors and the famous 'It's a metaphor,' from TFIOS, and the road trip and Katherines.

I could go on and on about this book, but I'll stop there. To conclude, Paper Towns is a remarkable and funny book with great characters and beautiful metaphors. I would recommend it to fans of any other John Green book, or fans of any similar YA authors, such as Rainbow Rowell. But to be honest, I think anyone and everyone could gain something from reading this.