court4short's review against another edition
3.0
I was hesitant to read this mostly because I read the summary on the inside sleeve and wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it. But, I finished it in two days, mostly because I really wanted to know what was going on. I didn't care for the character "Margo" too much, but it's probably because I couldn't empathize with her over much.
But overall, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I read it. I'll be reading more of John Green's books in the near future.
But overall, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I read it. I'll be reading more of John Green's books in the near future.
aprilthelibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
At first I thought this book was very similar to Looking for Alaska because you have a guy who's slightly cowardly and you have to girl who seems mysterious and depressed who the boy has a crush on, but I actually liked this one more for the journey Quentin went on with his group of friends trying to solve the mystery and clues Margo left for them.
librariann's review against another edition
4.0
Typical John Green fare but I still want to draw ♥ all over it. Dorky yet bright teen boy has infatuation with whimsical young Angelina Jolie type, she dazzles into his life and sweeps out leaving him on a hunt for MEANING. But gosh, no one does it with such panache. This guy: Quentin, high school senior in Orlando. This girl: Margo Roth Spiegelman, next door neighbor, co-discoverer of dead bodies (at age 9), high school legend. After a madcap night of prankery, Margo disappears, leaving only a few clues behind. Quentin is convinced she's killed herself and wants only him to discover her body. Manning up ensues.
triciawil's review against another edition
4.0
I'm fairly certain I've fallen in love with John Green. I love his style and how he reminds us that people are complex, life is messy and problems, in real life, rarely get resolved and tied up with a pretty little bow.
duffypratt's review against another edition
3.0
I found myself reading another John Green book, after The Fault in Our Stars, much sooner than I expected. In some ways, I think this is a better book than Fault. It's less manipulative, and relies less on simply being clever. And yet, while I could see ways that it was better, I enjoyed Fault a little more. I admit the possibility, however, that I might have enjoyed this one more if I had read it first.
Here's an example why that might be true: I fell in love with the narration in Fault on either page two or three when the narrator describes someone's history as "cancertastic". The love turned out to be infatuation, and it completely wore off when a character in this book describes something as being "nerdtastic." It turns out that in Fault he was cribbing from himself. But because I read that book first, I felt like he was cheating here and not there, if that makes any sense. Being a bit of a nerd myself, I just looked up a few online dictionaries for "-tastic" as a suffix, and sure enough, it now is one. But it was new to me, and I'm willing to bet that Green is among the first to slap it on either Cancer or Nerd. But I still felt cheated. And I think the reason why is because I was thinking of the people in these books as different people, but Green didn't try hard enough to make them talk differently. (Also, I'm willing to be chastised by any teens out there who will confirm that -tastic has actually become common usage among nerdy teens, or cancer ridden teens).
Another problem I had here was again Green proved to be overly literary. This book is haunted by the specters of Walt Whitman and Captain Ahab. At times, I felt like the narrative was devolving into a literary exegesis of Song of Myself. Not that there's anything wrong with that in principle. But it also felt way out of character for the narrator to puzzle through this poem with such obsession. In some ways, that poem is the ocean where the main character navigates his ship, in search of his own White Whale, in the form of Margo Speigleman.
I rather liked the narrative structure. It's a triptych. The first part follows the narrator and Margo on a night of adventure - 11 adventures to be precise. She drags him out in the middle of the night to assist her with getting some revenge on her ex-boyfriend and other ex-friends. This part was light and enjoyable.
Part two involves the disappearance of Margo, and the narrator's search for her, which takes him, mostly, into the afore-mentioned analysis of Song of Myself. This part worked decently, especially at the start, where it took the shape of an actual mystery. Eventually, the mystery became nothing but an exercise in self-pity, and I didn't like it so much. I did like the developments with the two "side-kicks": Ben and Radar. And the climax, during prom night was good (but a bit more subdued than Carrie, for example)
Part Three is an extended road trip that takes place instead of graduation. Put six kids into a minivan for twenty hours and what do you get? A whole lot of nothing here. In Fault, I thought the characters had way too much interesting to say to each other. Green goes to the opposite extreme here. Twenty hours together, and the most interesting thing any of them have to say is "I have to pee." It was good for a few laughs, but ultimately I thought this third part was both diverting and pointless.
All this was followed by a fairly touching coda, which redeemed some of the failings I saw earlier. I did like this book, but now I'm pretty sure that I won't lightly be picking up another Green book soon.
Here's an example why that might be true: I fell in love with the narration in Fault on either page two or three when the narrator describes someone's history as "cancertastic". The love turned out to be infatuation, and it completely wore off when a character in this book describes something as being "nerdtastic." It turns out that in Fault he was cribbing from himself. But because I read that book first, I felt like he was cheating here and not there, if that makes any sense. Being a bit of a nerd myself, I just looked up a few online dictionaries for "-tastic" as a suffix, and sure enough, it now is one. But it was new to me, and I'm willing to bet that Green is among the first to slap it on either Cancer or Nerd. But I still felt cheated. And I think the reason why is because I was thinking of the people in these books as different people, but Green didn't try hard enough to make them talk differently. (Also, I'm willing to be chastised by any teens out there who will confirm that -tastic has actually become common usage among nerdy teens, or cancer ridden teens).
Another problem I had here was again Green proved to be overly literary. This book is haunted by the specters of Walt Whitman and Captain Ahab. At times, I felt like the narrative was devolving into a literary exegesis of Song of Myself. Not that there's anything wrong with that in principle. But it also felt way out of character for the narrator to puzzle through this poem with such obsession. In some ways, that poem is the ocean where the main character navigates his ship, in search of his own White Whale, in the form of Margo Speigleman.
I rather liked the narrative structure. It's a triptych. The first part follows the narrator and Margo on a night of adventure - 11 adventures to be precise. She drags him out in the middle of the night to assist her with getting some revenge on her ex-boyfriend and other ex-friends. This part was light and enjoyable.
Part two involves the disappearance of Margo, and the narrator's search for her, which takes him, mostly, into the afore-mentioned analysis of Song of Myself. This part worked decently, especially at the start, where it took the shape of an actual mystery. Eventually, the mystery became nothing but an exercise in self-pity, and I didn't like it so much. I did like the developments with the two "side-kicks": Ben and Radar. And the climax, during prom night was good (but a bit more subdued than Carrie, for example)
Part Three is an extended road trip that takes place instead of graduation. Put six kids into a minivan for twenty hours and what do you get? A whole lot of nothing here. In Fault, I thought the characters had way too much interesting to say to each other. Green goes to the opposite extreme here. Twenty hours together, and the most interesting thing any of them have to say is "I have to pee." It was good for a few laughs, but ultimately I thought this third part was both diverting and pointless.
All this was followed by a fairly touching coda, which redeemed some of the failings I saw earlier. I did like this book, but now I'm pretty sure that I won't lightly be picking up another Green book soon.
jnikolova's review against another edition
4.0
What is this, John Green? What is it with you and your hopeless endings? You are such a Van Houten, seriously. I do care about the other characters. It's not Margo, it was never Margo.
1. I liked this book. Quite a lot, actually. I have built a love/hate relationship with Green's style. On one hand he masterfully builds strong, wise and interesting characters, on the other - they all end up sort of unbelievable by being wise way beyond their years. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be surrounded with kids who have so much knowledge about life and the world, but sadly, I have never met a person as deep as Green's characters. Hence the hate part: too high expectations of people after reading John Green books.
2. When I read his things, I feel like I move 30 years back in time and fall in a Hughes movie. Which is a good thing, I believe, as I love his movies. All of the characters just have something about them that's very Ferris Bueller (Margo) or Sixteen Candles (Q).
3. Q: I like to imagine actors who could play certain characters, namely the interesting ones, so my very first and instinctive thought was Nat Wolff. Then I was on the verge of google-ing spoilers for the book because I was too worried for Margo and what did I see? A "Paper Towns" movie in 2015 starring who? The one and only Nat Wolff. Good casting, guys! For the first time in my life the actor I envision is actually cast for the part. I'm thrilled.
As for his persona, I liked him for the most part, except that his obsession made him both annoying and hard for me to relate to. I'd never go around talking to everyone about one person ALL THE DAMN TIME.
4. Margo: who I hated, sort of. At the beginning she was cool, I was interested. And then I realized that she's just another Alaska. That's Green's type of girl - messed up by unknown circumstances which just makes her look like a bitch. I believe Margo herself was worried that people would feel like this toward her, well, you are damn right. I'm sick of these black-hole kinds of girls who need not to be loved, but to be worshipped and desired.
5. The sidekicks: who I loved! All of the secondary characters were a blast. I would have preferred to read a bit more about them than about Margo. I especially loved Radar, he was absolutely awesome. Lacey was also great, and Ben was funny, although the usage of "honey-bunny" is something I would dump friends over.
But despite the things that I did not like about the book, I think it was marvelous . The story was interesting, aside from the fact that the most interesting characters leave rather abruptly not to be seen again. I was on edge and very curious and I could absolutely not wait to see what was going to happen. I haven't been this thrilled for a while now. I mentioned spoilers above, but I didn't read them, I was so interested that I decided to devour the book faster instead.
1. I liked this book. Quite a lot, actually. I have built a love/hate relationship with Green's style. On one hand he masterfully builds strong, wise and interesting characters, on the other - they all end up sort of unbelievable by being wise way beyond their years. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be surrounded with kids who have so much knowledge about life and the world, but sadly, I have never met a person as deep as Green's characters. Hence the hate part: too high expectations of people after reading John Green books.
2. When I read his things, I feel like I move 30 years back in time and fall in a Hughes movie. Which is a good thing, I believe, as I love his movies. All of the characters just have something about them that's very Ferris Bueller (Margo) or Sixteen Candles (Q).
3. Q: I like to imagine actors who could play certain characters, namely the interesting ones, so my very first and instinctive thought was Nat Wolff. Then I was on the verge of google-ing spoilers for the book because I was too worried for Margo and what did I see? A "Paper Towns" movie in 2015 starring who? The one and only Nat Wolff. Good casting, guys! For the first time in my life the actor I envision is actually cast for the part. I'm thrilled.
As for his persona, I liked him for the most part, except that his obsession made him both annoying and hard for me to relate to. I'd never go around talking to everyone about one person ALL THE DAMN TIME.
4. Margo: who I hated, sort of. At the beginning she was cool, I was interested. And then I realized that she's just another Alaska. That's Green's type of girl - messed up by unknown circumstances which just makes her look like a bitch. I believe Margo herself was worried that people would feel like this toward her, well, you are damn right. I'm sick of these black-hole kinds of girls who need not to be loved, but to be worshipped and desired.
5. The sidekicks: who I loved! All of the secondary characters were a blast. I would have preferred to read a bit more about them than about Margo. I especially loved Radar, he was absolutely awesome. Lacey was also great, and Ben was funny, although the usage of "honey-bunny" is something I would dump friends over.
But despite the things that I did not like about the book, I think it was marvelous . The story was interesting, aside from the fact that the most interesting characters leave rather abruptly not to be seen again. I was on edge and very curious and I could absolutely not wait to see what was going to happen. I haven't been this thrilled for a while now. I mentioned spoilers above, but I didn't read them, I was so interested that I decided to devour the book faster instead.
m_gracexx's review against another edition
DNF at chapter 2. Feel like that’s all that needs to be said.
heshotmedown's review against another edition
I have come to the sad conclusion that John Green just isn't for me.
Except for "Looking for Alaska" I haven't since today liked any other book of his.
Except for "Looking for Alaska" I haven't since today liked any other book of his.
rose_91's review against another edition
2.0
I think all of John Greens books are too similar. This was just like Looking for Alaska in the manner of characters: average teenage boy, not very popular, loves the amazing misterious girl, has some cool friends, does some pranks and then the girl leaves and the boy goes back to being average.
And the most annoying thing in these books: no real teenager has such deep thoughts, or talks like this.
I only read it because I like reading the books before the movies come out. Now I'm not sure if I want to watch it at all.
The beginning was funny, but then it became downright stupid and really unrealistic. A sane person would inform the police about all the thing Q and his friends found out. That would have been the logical step. Margo was simply selfish and crazy. And it was stupid of her to make her disappearance connected to the cheating of her boyfriend. Because the pranks she pulled with Q that night were understandable, but leaving her parents and the town and school was completely unrelated to it and made it look like she was going to kill herself over a boy. Which is idiotic and not even like her.
The end was just "meh". If she didn't want to be found she should have left no clues at all. No one found that first paper town place interesting, why did she think Q would? The only one thing she did right was calling her mother when Q found her. She was only playing the misunderstood teenagre the whole time.
All in all quite disappointing.
And the most annoying thing in these books: no real teenager has such deep thoughts, or talks like this.
I only read it because I like reading the books before the movies come out. Now I'm not sure if I want to watch it at all.
The beginning was funny, but then it became downright stupid and really unrealistic. A sane person would inform the police about all the thing Q and his friends found out. That would have been the logical step. Margo was simply selfish and crazy. And it was stupid of her to make her disappearance connected to the cheating of her boyfriend. Because the pranks she pulled with Q that night were understandable, but leaving her parents and the town and school was completely unrelated to it and made it look like she was going to kill herself over a boy. Which is idiotic and not even like her.
The end was just "meh". If she didn't want to be found she should have left no clues at all. No one found that first paper town place interesting, why did she think Q would? The only one thing she did right was calling her mother when Q found her. She was only playing the misunderstood teenagre the whole time.
All in all quite disappointing.
valentinanjo's review against another edition
4.0
Es war nicht schlecht (besser als der Film auf jeden Fall), aber es hat mich auch nicht vom Hocker gehauen. Quentin ist mir irgendwann ziemlich auf den Geist gegangen, aber ansonsten war es ein gutes Buch für zwischendurch.