A review by jnikolova
Paper Towns, by John Green
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.