Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns by John Green Reviewed by Tyler L.

Although Paper Towns was written by an author I highly respect, John Green, the novel ultimately concluded with a bad taste in my mouth. The novel follows a male senior in highschool, Quentin Jacobsen, as he embarks on a self discovering journey with his two best friends, Ben and Radar, to find his childhood crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman, who's gone on a mysterious hiatus from her average life. Throughout the clues and planning, Margo entrusts Quentin to find her before going through with a choice that will change her life forever. It deemed quite difficult to genuinely enjoy this novel through its uneventful plot and deceiving ending, however, if I must claim to have a favorite section of the novel, it would be near the ending when Quentin finally identified the location of Margo. This was the most standing out section of the novel because of how Quentin and his friends were tasked to create a well-thought out plan in less than a few minutes. Furthermore, the character Radar truly resonated with me because I can respect the way his mind works and how he's the brains behind the adventure, but it was only at this moment in the book that he was capable of showing the readers his capabilities in calculating and organization.

To faithful readers of John Green, I would recommend this book to his fanbase. However, as a reader of book of his, The Fault In Our Stars, I held this novel to a high expectation and was very disappointed. The novel had a bland and boring novel that required very little critical thinking. The book revolves mostly around mystery and problem solving, however, with the uneventful plot, it can be difficult to pay attention to the mystery itself. If mediocre mystery with a twist of teenage angst intrigues such readers, then this book is for you. John Green's other works are quite plentiful in literature, however most of his work are thought provoking and dense with analytical thinking, but with this book, it proves to be slightly different from his other books. It would be enjoyable to read this book if a fan of John Green wants a novel that is less complex and at a lower level of comprehension. The novel itself doesn't affect the reader's daily life in ways that his other work does; the novel is a plan story, nothing more, nothing less. Overall, Paper Towns by John Green was just another book on the shelve. The plot was boring, and the reader is bound to be unsatisfied with the ending of the book, not because of the decisions that Quentin makes, but because of how over analytical he was about the mystery. The book was simply held at a high expectation for me, and the expectation was not met. Perhaps it would've been a good if Paper Towns was the first book of John Green that I've read.