Paper Towns

I just love this author. His books are always about high school kids who are facing typical high school challenges - friendship, finding love, teenage angst, nothing earth shatteringly new. But his characters are so authentic - lots of flaws and the situations they face seem so realistic. The books are funny and poignant. Although it has been years, even decades since I was in highschool, I just love these stories. 5 big stars.
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i began reading this book and was afraid. i had heard so much good about it, and john green. the beginning didn't really strike me as interesting. it seemed like it was going to set up this totally weak guy in love with this mysterious girl and "omg it's luuvvv" would happen, and.. yeah. (and the an abundance of katherines book really turned me off, personally. just wasn't my taste in the slightest. but i digress.)
however, the more i read, the more i was completely sucked into the book. i began it, got about.. 30 pages in, and set it down for a day. i picked it up after i woke up, began reading, and read for.. a good straight 10 hours, if not longer save food, bathroom breaks, and family and friends trying to talk to me (to which i told them as politely as possible to "fuck off, bother me after i'm done with this book."). i could not, for the life of me, put it down.
nearing the.. probably third quarter mark of the book i literally did not put it down. i got a soda, pack of smokes, and some dry cereal. i refused to move. i had to know what happened.
and while i can get wrapped up in a book for days at a time, being so captured as i was with this particular book isn't very common at all.
i believe the last time something similar to this happened was.. the day after the final Harry Potter book came out. ( )

While not as good as The Fault in Our Stars, this book has its own set of merits. I enjoyed the mystery of where Margo ended up and what would be waiting for Q when he followed the clues. ( )

I'm beginning to think the Fault in our Stars was a fluke. As always, the writing is elegant and in places beautiful, but the characters are flat, and, in Margo's case, downright unlikeable. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. John Green is very special. It didn't have the same emotional impact that "Looking for Alaska" did, but it rang true in the same way. Despite the sort of cliched 80s movie, nerd/popular kids camaraderie theme that shows up in this story, I still felt that Green never let his story turn too obvious or predictable. It kept me guessing! Green's teenagers are interesting and multi-layered and flawed, and it's genuinely fun to read about them.
I was also very attracted to this book because it takes place in Florida! In Orlando, of all places. Orlando is a terrible, ugly, culture-less place. It kind of sucks the life right out of you. Green really captures the oddity that is Florida--both physically and spiritually. And no one ever seems to write about Florida...except Harry Crews and Carl Hiasson. And Zora Neale Hurston...who also does it well. But Green captures the more modern, dead grass and tourist trap Florida that I know so well.
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