Book Review: 'Paper Towns' by John Green

Ok, so once again I've been absent from my blog for far too long!! Just getting round to getting on with it really, but definitely hoping to use it more in the next few weeks- missing regular writing!

I read this book at the start of summer, about a 5 or 6 weeks ago! So I apologise for my lack of detail! I decided to order it from my library when I heard that the film was being released on August 17th (3 days ago!), but it was in high demand so I didn't have a long loan of it, causing me to purchase it on my kindle when I wasn't done in time! I considered just reordering it but I was at a very gripping point and just wanted to find out what happened! Actually, the whole novel was gripping and addictive!



I liked how well the lead characters were developed. The relationship between leading male Quentin and his friends Ben and Radar is very realistic, particularly in terms of their chat about girls and prom and cars.... In fact, the whole final weeks of school setting was very relatable to me and helped the book to appeal to me especially, as I mentioned in my last post: 'A Lot of Lasts'



The leading female character of Margo is largely not in the novel, as she mysteriously disappears, leaving the story to follow Quentin's search for her. Overall, I found Margo a fairly unrealistic character- imagine every drama and extreme in one person and you're almost there! HOWEVER, that said, I found many of the individual traits of Margo very realistic: her confidence, her rebellion, her loneliness despite popularity, her emotion and anger, her desire for a fresh start and many many more.


As usual, I read far more deeply into the characters than perhaps everyone would, because it helped me to relate better, and I therefore suspected that John Green had intended Margo to suffer from some sort of depression, but put on this brave, independent front in an attempt at masking it. That's one of the many great things about Green's characters; everyone can interpret something different from them.


Overall, this was a fantastic book, and I am so happy that I read it when I did, because it meant I could relate to it on so many different levels! It will be very interesting to see Cara Delevingne and Nat Wolff's portrayals of the lead characters when I go to see the film on Wednesday. I'm very excited so watch this space! (cheesy I know, but I've always wanted to day that)


Catriona x