Paper Towns by John Green

Some questions why does John Green writes the same thing over and over. The way I see it, it is a kind of signature, a John Green signature. It just proves how good he is. He can use the same variables, apply a different formula and he will still get the perfect result which, in this case, is Paper Towns. Nope, he is not a mathematician. He is a novelist and what a genius novelist he is.

Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman, neighbors and best of friends at the age of 9 discovered a dead body at the middle of the park. From that point, these two grew apart and had their own social circles. Quentin, Q for short, became the nerdy, neurotic, perfect attendance, straight edge guy while Margo became —well, she became Margo Roth Spiegelman, queen of Winter Park High, whose six-syllable name was often spoken in its entirety with a kind of quiet reverence.

Q never lost his deep admiration for Margo so when she shows up one night in his window asking him to accompany her on her 11-part mission he reluctantly agrees. Q ends up having the best and wildest night of his life only to discover the next day that Margo disappeared. With the help of his friends, Radar and Ben, Q looks for the missing Margo. Little did he know that to find Margo would also mean, for the first time, actually see her.

John Green, as usual, crafted another wonderful novel filled with his usual elements that makes his books truly stand-out. His characters come to life as you turn the pages.  The secondary characters are so interesting and so well-drawn that they can have a book of their own. His clever and witty prose will make your reading experience thoroughly enjoyable.

It’s not all fun, though. If you’ve read a John Green book before, you know that his books will give you the best of both worlds. While he creates an unforgettable and laugh-out-loud kind of story, he also presents a reflective exploration on humanity without appearing as something lofty or condescending.

Paper Towns handled really well the question of connectedness and empathy we have for one another. Sometimes we tend to see a person the way we want to see them and by that, we would come to know, like or hate the idea we have of that person and not the person himself. “We idealize them as gods or dismiss them as animals”(p.198)

This made me realize how important it is for us to love reading. By reading books, especially the first person narratives, we learn how it is to be someone else. We learn how to put ourselves on somebody else’s shoes and walk a thousand miles back from where it came from. We learn to understand the joy and pain that is not ours. As Q puts it:

"Imagining isn't perfect. You can't get all the way inside someone
else. But imagining being someone else or the world being something
else, is the only way in. It is the machine that kills fascist."
                                                          (p.299)

If it’s not obvious enough: yes, I love Paper Towns. It made me laugh, cry(a bit) and at the same time it made me think and feel and feel infinite. I especially love the perfect and painfully beautiful ending.

John Green is the kind of author that even if the book doesn’t possess his name on the cover or anywhere else, you’d still know that it is from him. Read Paper Towns and marvel at the sheer awesomeness and brilliance that is John Green.

Rating: ★★★★★★