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Paper Towns

John Green (Goodreads Author)

3.78 · Rating details · 975,047 ratings · 49,157 reviews

Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, alw ...more

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Kindle Edition, 321 pages

Published October 16th 2008 by Speak

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Oct 10, 2013 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, 2015

"Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will," she says.
"But then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all."

I already said this in a status update but I am so glad I reread Paper Towns. I first read it years ago; back before I'd heard of vlogbrothers, back when John Green was only known by a handful of readers, way way back before The Fault in Our Stars. And I loved it.

“It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.”

Then ...more

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Jun 03, 2008 Jamie Felton rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I need to start off with my criticism of John Green:
1) Margo and Quentin are exactly the same people as Colin and Katherine and Miles and Alaska. Quentin/Colin/Miles is this very thoughtful, somewhat nerdy young man who is on the cusp of fucking reaching out and grabbing life by the balls however he can. He is also enamored with Margo/Alaska/Katherine, a girl who is unattainable. She is unpredictable and full of a shimmering charm; she fades oasis-style the closer and closer you try to get. In a I need to start off with my criticism of John Green:
1) Margo and Quentin are exactly the same people as Colin and Katherine and Miles and Alaska. Quentin/Colin/Miles is this very thoughtful, somewhat nerdy young man who is on the cusp of fucking reaching out and grabbing life by the balls however he can. He is also enamored with Margo/Alaska/Katherine, a girl who is unattainable. She is unpredictable and full of a shimmering charm; she fades oasis-style the closer and closer you try to get. In addition, she feels too much and is never really seen for who she is (but rather, for who everyone wants her to be). Having said this, I am in love with Quentin/Colin/Miles, and Margo/Alaska/Katherine is the girl I want to meet/aspire to someday be so I can't be too critical. Green knows these people and has lit them from inside with realism and dimension.
2) There were moments (albeit far fewer than in his previous books) where I felt like...okay, this is maybe a teensy bit contrived. A little bit too perfectly quirky. I cannot totally relate or believe in a guy who has invented a mathematical formula calculating the probability that the next Katherine he dates will dump him. I think it's a creative premise that makes me want to read the book and is extremely well-executed, but if I don't believe in someone, I'm not going to fully feel for them or understand them. This prevents me from enjoying the book as much as I do Margaret Atwood, etc. Maybe this doesn't bother anyone else, but it bothers me, and I just can't put the guy up on a pedestal.
However, however, I fucking loved this book. And I'm not going to summarize it. It was practically perfect and ridiculously engrossing and extremely fascinating (so much so that my adverb use has increased exponentially). If I even tried to give a synopsis, it would trivialize it too much. Green uses Leaves of Grass in a way that made me want to re-read it (after having suffered through it in high school) and potentially graffiti it all over the United States because: we. have. it. so. wrong. here. (I love Green's use of periods). Part of why I loved it is for selfish reasons. Margo's struggles are my own, and her hates are my hates. In Quentin deciphering Margo, it helped me realize a lot of things about myself; this is something that would be valuable to anyone who needs to become the wounded man. ...more

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May 16, 2012 Sophia. rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: unsatisfaying-ending, what-s-the-point, eye-rolls-and-frowning, huge-disappointment, flaws-in-the-concept, unbelievable, makes-no-sense

Why so many good ratings for this book? It could basically be called Looking for Margo, or Paper Alaska, because it's the same formula, again and again. How many books can he write about an unbelievable teenager secretely loving another unbelievable teenager? Everything was so absurd, Quentin's parents, the road trip, Ben, the black Santas.
All the metaphors are perharps what made me lose it completely. The book that Quentin reads, Song of Myself, all the thoughts he had about it are so painfull ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Sasha Alsberg rated it liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed Paper Towns but did not love it as much as Johns other work. The ending was not as fulfilling as I hoped.
3.5/5 stars
Xx

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Nov 10, 2011 karen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pretty-girls-make-graves, why-yes-i-ya

beatlemania is nothing compared to what i feel for john green right now.

this book was the perfect palate-cleanser between all the dark apocalyptic stuff i have been shoving in my face. i have been reading so much dystopian YA that i forgot there were other options. i bought this ages ago, because i read looking for alaska, and everyone was giving this one high marks, but i kept passing it up in favor of "kids whose school is trying to eat them" and "kids vs. bears" and "kids in a world without beatlemania is nothing compared to what i feel for john green right now.

this book was the perfect palate-cleanser between all the dark apocalyptic stuff i have been shoving in my face. i have been reading so much dystopian YA that i forgot there were other options. i bought this ages ago, because i read looking for alaska, and everyone was giving this one high marks, but i kept passing it up in favor of "kids whose school is trying to eat them" and "kids vs. bears" and "kids in a world without cheese" which is the scariest dystopia i can imagine right now, but i forgot just how scary real life can be. and john green reminded me. and obviously, this isn't a horror novel, but i was reading this with so much apprehension, heading towards an uncertain ending, genuinely concerned for the characters.

(view spoiler)

i liked this even better than looking for alaska. in that book, i really liked the characters, but they did feel like characters. this feels like i am just observing real people, following actual kids around (which i would never do, officer) but they sound authentic. i thought looking for alaska was great, but those kids were a little too smarty-pants for me, while this book just sounds like actual smart kids talking. and it is funny and sad and intelligent and oh just so good. that scene with r. and the c.f. t-s?? i laughed so loudly, i startled myself. i just could not stop giggling. (fortunately not on the subway for that one)

a lot of the YA stuff i read is like "what if kids were hyper-articulate and possessed of amazing insight and inner resources and also super fighting skills?" but this one reminded me of what it was actually like to be youthful (ahhh....) even grown folks who refuse to dip into YA would enjoy this, i suspect. he is my perfect storyteller. he does his job, he takes you on a journey, and the characters actually grow as people and every character has a distinct voice, and there is dramatic tension. he is a writer. not an "author," but a true writer. some YA, even in books i like, falls into traps: they talk down to the audience, they gloss over certain things, clearly hoping the audience won't notice, they fail to provide appropriate details so the world becomes raggedy... and while it is easier, i'm sure, to operate in a real-world setting, rather than a world of your own making, john green does not take any shortcuts. there is a density to his writing that is truly impressive in a book that is not a slow-paced slog.

will i return to the YA dystopia? duh, obviously - i have like 30 of them here i have been dying to get into. but i know that when i need a break, i can return to john green and be guaranteed a well-wrought and thoughtful story that manages to actually have useful life lessons without coming across as teachy-preachy. and lord knows i still have a lot to learn.

come to my blog! ...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Nicole rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011

The following is quite a lot of dribble that I felt the need to get off my chest...
Hmmm...what to say? I'm kind of perplexed by this book. I know I never want to read the name Margo Roth Spielgelman ever again, that's for sure. The characters (apart from the previously named) were fantastic and very believable. The dialogue between the friends was great and funny as I have come to expect from John Green. The first quarter of the book was highly enjoyable and then it deteriorated for me. I think ...more

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Jul 19, 2018 Maria rated it it was ok · review of another edition

2/5 Stars ⭐️ ⭐️

“What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.”

Oh boi. This motherfucking book. Let me talk to you about this book. I HATED THE GUTS OUT OF IT. I have never given this kind of low rating to a book, I guess it's time. And I would have given it less stars but I gifted it half a start because of something I will talk about below. Here's what I wrote when I started this book two days ago:

I have heard the worst fucking things about this book. This isn't th

...more

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Mar 05, 2011 K.D. Absolutely rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: Ace

Shelves: ya, borrowed

“Mirroring” is a concept in psychology where a person can know himself better by soliciting feedbacks from other people who he interacts with either at home or at work. Last weekend, I attended a company-sponsored teambuilding session and the facilitator used this. I got some good feedbacks that confirmed what I already knew but also some revelations. Those included in the so-called “blindspots” quadrant.

In this novel Paper Towns, John Green indirectly used Margo Roth Spiegelman for Quentine Jac “Mirroring” is a concept in psychology where a person can know himself better by soliciting feedbacks from other people who he interacts with either at home or at work. Last weekend, I attended a company-sponsored teambuilding session and the facilitator used this. I got some good feedbacks that confirmed what I already knew but also some revelations. Those included in the so-called “blindspots” quadrant.

In this novel Paper Towns, John Green indirectly used Margo Roth Spiegelman for Quentine Jacobsen or simply Q to understand love and life and to know himself better as a person, as a man. Not by giving him direct feedbacks but by making him experience the things that he would not have dared doing. Who would have dared driving your parents’ car in the middle of the night, pushing it with your friend few meters away from the house so as not to awake them with the sound of the engine? Then going to the houses of the people who wronged your friend just to avenge? Then your friend disappeared, with no intention of returning and not wanting to be found, the following day? Leaving a note after a hug and a kiss: “I. Will. Miss. Hanging. Out. With. You.” That was after leaving catfishes in the underwear drawer of a friend ha ha. Who would have thought of having this plot in the first place?

What makes this novel engaging is the prose: it is downright sincere and true to its voice: youngish, quirky, innocent yet full of life lessons. Green does not push down his philosophy on growing up down your throat. He lets you enjoy his story and life realizations just naturally follow. I am sure that Green’s idiosyncrasies must have been reflected somehow by his many male characters: Q, Radar and Ben but Margo permeates in each page of this novel:

”Yes. The fundamental mistake I had always made — and that she had, in fairness, always led me to make — was this: Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl."

I applaud Green for creating a character like Margo that can rally boys to transform themselves into men without disregard to the pains of growing up. After all, we all went through those pains – not having a prom date, losing your first love, unrequited love, unknowingly pissing off some of our friends, etc – and we all learned from them. As we grow old, we tend to ridicule young people experiencing the same pains and call them trivial and proudly say something like you ain’t seen nothing yet! But for them, those are parts of their lives. That’s where we were. That’s where they are now.

Like Margo’s paper towns, we need to take care not to blow down the delicate houses and make them fall apart. And yes, even one of my blind spots has just been cleared by this novel.

I never thought that a middle-age man like me would still enjoy a YA book. Where were these books when I was growing up?
...more

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Aug 30, 2014 NReads rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book as the others by this author has the John Green theme:

1.Awkward funny charismatic good looking fit main character that somehow is a looser.
2.The hot popular girl who he is forever in love.
3.A weird funny bestfriend who gets in trouble.
4.Prom.
5.Everything happening in the last 2 weeks of high school.
6.Quotes that every teenage tumblr girl has in their blog description.
7.Road trip
8.Some meaningful ending when you re-think all your teenage years and wish that this would have happened to y ...more

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Nov 05, 2008 Anne rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: teen

I was pretty disappointed in Paper Towns. I am a big fan of John Green but found this book plodding and boring. I hated the Margo character and thought that Q was a big whiner. His obsession with Margo, who he didn't really even know, was really annoying. I realize that this was one of the messages of the book, that we all assign traits and "personalities" to people we hardly know, but it was still hard to take, page after page.

I still love John Green and his blog, still consider myself a "nerd ...more

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Aug 27, 2012 L DelaRG rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Teens finding their way

Recommended to L DelaRG by: Philippa

Shelves: irritating-characters, male-pov, let-down, first-person-narrative, ya

Oh dear lord, I found this book immensely irritating.

I've only just finished reading Looking For Alaska (which was an okay book) and thus it was immediately apparent that this book was EXACTLY LIKE LOOKING FOR ALASKA. It had the same geeky male character. The same kooky (aka annoying) female character. The same male best friend. And whilst this was okay in LFA, reading the same characters again was annoying! And it seemed like they were on the same journey as in FA, except obviously there's a di Oh dear lord, I found this book immensely irritating.

I've only just finished reading Looking For Alaska (which was an okay book) and thus it was immediately apparent that this book was EXACTLY LIKE LOOKING FOR ALASKA. It had the same geeky male character. The same kooky (aka annoying) female character. The same male best friend. And whilst this was okay in LFA, reading the same characters again was annoying! And it seemed like they were on the same journey as in FA, except obviously there's a divergence in the second half. Call this book the Alternate Universe version of LFA, if you will.

Also, I just found elements of this book preposterous. (view spoiler)

The thing is, John Green is a good writer. And I feel he really needs to branch out a bit more. His other book, The Fault in the Stars, apparently has the same characters in it too. John, really? A sign of a good writer is their ability to be original, and surely he yearns to write about different types of characters? Also, John needs to have a more interesting plot, where things actually happen, rather than nothing much happening except for a lot of musings.

I used to watch YT clips of John and really liked him, so his books are a bit of a let down in comparison. I really do hope he writes something more creative (with fresh characters), because he has got talent - he just needs to push himself more. ...more

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Jul 29, 2014 Alejandro rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, novel, detective, romance

Unexpected in many ways but still quite a ride!

THOSE UNREACHABLE PEDESTALS

Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will.

This book definitely wasn’t what I expected but then again it surprised me in many ways, and I also made me think, so clearly this wasn’t a journey without a return.

How well do we know the other people?

How well do we know our neighbors?

How well do we know our own close friends?

How well do we know our first crush?

I am not shocked if many readers wouldn’t enjoy this b ...more

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Jun 19, 2014 Inge marked it as did-not-finish · review of another edition

DNF 64%

Oh, this was just awful. I quite liked the banter between Q and his friends, but I could not stand another word about that damn Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo Roth Spiegelman is beautiful, Margo Roth Spiegelman is perfect, Margo Roth Spiegelman is sensational, she’s better than everyone else, she’s more than everyone else, and basically she’s everything you’re not. Margo Roth Spiegelman screams Manic Pixie Dream Girl from miles away, she’s whimsical and different and did I mention she’s bet ...more

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Dec 30, 2014 Patrick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, books-i-would-blurb

This sort of read is off the beaten track for me, non-fantasy YA-ish literature.

That said, it's amazingly well-written, and I enjoyed it immensely. John Green is an amazing author, and he writes with a delicacy I admire and envy.

This book, was sweet and light and heartbreaking and true. It's the sort of book I'll never be able to write...

Highly recommended for anyone.
...more

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Aug 17, 2008 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If you liked Looking for Alaska and Abundance of Katherines, you will LOVE this book. I could NOT put it down. It's funny and mysterious and just so real. Definitely recommended. ...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Megs ♥ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books, favs, z-2011-reads

This book truly had me on an emotional roller coaster, and I enjoyed almost every minute of it.

The book was broken into 3 parts, and I honestly felt completely different about each of them.

Part 1:

The first part of this book was brilliant. It was a lovely introduction to the characters, and their life as high school seniors. It has had a flashback which was a fun scene.

The whole part with Q and Margo out at night was amazing. It was suspenseful and quite fun to read about those antics. We really ...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Louize rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Louize by: Filipinos discussion read

"It's so hard to leave-until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world...Leaving feels too good, once you leave."

We all leave eventually. No matter who and what we are, or where we’re from, we will someday and somehow leave our comfort zones or the norm of our lives to find ourselves a place in this world. Some people take their time into actually doing it. They spent much time planning and scheming on how they should gloriously plow into life. There are some who tri ...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Ferdy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Spoilers

This was disappointing. I really don't know what the big deal is about John Green. Sure, The Fault in Our Stars was good but it was hardly a masterpiece and all his other books seem average at best. Why does he get so much love? Is it because he's a guy? I've noticed that most people tend to give men praise and credit even when it's not deserved (whilst the opposite is true for women). I honestly don't think John Green deserves all the fan love and respect he gets — his books are nothing ...more

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Jun 03, 2015 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, 21th-century, united-states, young-adult

Paper Towns, John Green

Paper Towns is a novel written by John Green, primarily for an audience of young adults, and was published on October 16, 2008, by Dutton Books.

The novel is about the coming-of-age of the protagonist, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen and his search for Margo Roth Spiegelman, his neighbor and childhood sweetheart. During his search, Quentin and his friends Ben, Radar, and Lacey discover information about Margo. ]f you liked "Looking for Alaska" or "The Fault In Our Stars" try out "Pap Paper Towns, John Green

Paper Towns is a novel written by John Green, primarily for an audience of young adults, and was published on October 16, 2008, by Dutton Books.

The novel is about the coming-of-age of the protagonist, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen and his search for Margo Roth Spiegelman, his neighbor and childhood sweetheart. During his search, Quentin and his friends Ben, Radar, and Lacey discover information about Margo. ]f you liked "Looking for Alaska" or "The Fault In Our Stars" try out "Paper Towns".

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هفدهم ماه آوریل سال 2017 میلادی

عنوان: شهرهای کاغذی؛ نویسنده: جان گرین؛ مترجم سیاوش صمیمی فرد؛ تهران، نشر هیرمند، 1395؛ در 387ص؛ شابک 9789644084096؛ موضوع داستانهای نوجوانان از نویسندگان انگلیسی سده 20م

نام فیلم: شهرهای کاغذی؛ ژانر: کمدی - درام - معمایی؛ کارگردان: جیک شریر؛ تهیه‌ کننده مارتی بوون؛ ویک گادفری؛ نویسنده اسکات ناستادتر؛ مایکل اچ وبر؛ بر اساس شهرهای کاغذی؛ اثر جان گرین؛ بازیگران نات وولف؛ کارا دلیوین؛ هالستون سیج؛ آستین آبرامز؛ جاستیس اسمیت؛ کیتلین کارور؛ موسیقی جان دبنی؛ فیلم‌برداری دیوید لنزنبرگ؛ تدوین جیکوب کری‌کرافت؛ توزیع‌ کننده: فاکس سده بیستم؛ تاریخ‌های انتشار روز بیست و چهارم ماه ژوئیه سال 2015میلادی (ایاالات متحده)؛ مدت زمان 109دقیقه؛ کشور آمریکا؛ زبان انگلیسی؛ هزینهٔ فیلم 12میلیون دلار؛ فروش گیشه 85.4میلیون دلار

خوانشگران این کتاب، نوجوانان هستند؛ رمان، درباره ی به سن بلوغ رسیدن شخصیت اصلی داستان، «کوئنتین (کیو) جاکوبسون»، و جستجوی او برای یافتن «مارگو رات اشپگلمن» است، که در کودکی، همسایه، و سوگلی‌ اش بوده است؛ در این مدت، «کوئنتین» و دوستانش «بن»، «رادار»، و «لسی»، به اطلاعاتی درباره ی «مارگو»، پی می‌برند؛ «جان گرین»، برای نگارش این کتاب، از تجربه و اطلاعاتش، از «شهرهای کاغذی»، طی گشت‌ و گذار خویش در «داکوتای جنوبی»، الهام گرفته است؛
ا. شربیانی ...more

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Apr 02, 2015 Kai rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, overrated, 2015

“If you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all.”

A Disappointment
You know, it started promising. The revenge trip was fun, and so was discovering the first few clues about Margo's disappearance. But that's it. The rest was one long bore. For CHAPTERS Q did nothing but read one certain poem, then think about it, just to find nothing of help, so he gave it another read. And another. And yet another. Even more so, Q was a plain not to say utterly boring protagonist. A stereotypical high school ...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Greg rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-for-kids, fiction

1. A bit of a confession, some of which I've never actually told anyone or said out loud before, but which I now share with the internets.

In the interest of full disclosure, in high school I wasn't popular at all. If there were a popularity graph plotting popularity that looked like this:

It wasn't that I was a pariah of some sort who was generally looked down on, I wasn't harassed by jocks or made to suffer any unnecessary indignities, I was an absolute non-entity. I had no friends, no enemies, ...more

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Sep 26, 2008 Ellen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I was disappointed in this book, especially since John Green is an author I've been meaning to read for some time now. He writes Young Adult novels (Looking for Alaska [wherein "Alaska" is a girl's name], An Abundance of Katherines, to name a couple) and is both a popular and critical success. This is the first of his books that I've read, and I wish now that I'd started with one of his earlier ones.

In a nutshell, this novel bored me. If I were a teenager (the novel's primary audience) reading t ...more

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Jun 12, 2013 Christy marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Going to stop this one at 25%... I'm just not able to get into it no matter how hard I try. Sigh. I love John Green books, but I'm not sure this is the one for me. ...more

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May 01, 2015 Sarah Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2015, romance, as, contemporary, young-adult, death

“Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will.”

Well, I have to say, and please don’t hate me, that was a lot better than The Fault in Our Stars! I mean A LOT BETTER!

I liked Quentin in this story, and it was noble the way he was so intent on finding Margo, alive, or dead or somewhere in-between. I did wonder what he was doing at times, he should have been studying, he should have been attending graduation, he should have been doing a lot of things, but instead he was so obsessed with finding ...more

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Apr 06, 2015 Dee☾ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The more I think about this book the more I don't like it.
I hated the ending. It made the entire book completely pointless. I do enjoy John Green's writing style, but I'm starting to get the feeling once you've read one of his books you've read them all. ...more

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Jun 14, 2015 pstreads rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: for-school-profound, books-i-have

I'm probably gonna get a lot of WTF responses for saying this book was so overrated. But, it really was. Over. Freaking. Rated. Sorry, not sorry.

I don't understand the hype really.
Guys are so dumb. Girls are so dumb. I think it tried too hard to be "deep", which just made me cringe a lot. This is the third John Green book I've read and maybe I let myself have too high of an expectation but, ugh. Margo is so needy and annoying. Q is stupidly naive. Ben is silly, which I liked. Razor is the savin ...more

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Jun 07, 2014 Darth J rated it liked it · review of another edition

So this is my second John Green book, and my second accidental first edition of one of his books too:

The focus of this novel is a girl named Margo, and the MC’s (Quentin) obsession with her. Ever since they were kids, she’s taken up residence in his thoughts and when they are teens and she brings him on her brilliantly planned night of revenge, he becomes hopelessly hooked on her.

Margo is a mystery. She can get into anywhere, take anything she wants, and all the legends surrounding her turn out ...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Jacob Proffitt rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, audiobook

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book started out well-enough as a semi-atypical teen coming of age story—semi-atypical because the beginning events (Q and Margo on a night about town) are atypical of teens in general but only semi because it's not really unexpected in books about teens. At any rate, getting to know Quentin is fun. He's a fairly standard kid with good grades and a middle-rank social standing. His night with Margo, the high-flying center of gossip, is moderately transformative if only because he has had a c This book started out well-enough as a semi-atypical teen coming of age story—semi-atypical because the beginning events (Q and Margo on a night about town) are atypical of teens in general but only semi because it's not really unexpected in books about teens. At any rate, getting to know Quentin is fun. He's a fairly standard kid with good grades and a middle-rank social standing. His night with Margo, the high-flying center of gossip, is moderately transformative if only because he has had a chance to cut loose with the girl he has had a crush on since forever.

After their big night, Margo disappears and the rest of the book is Quentin, with occasional help from his friends, trying to piece together why she would do that and where she might be. There is, of course, deep thought and silliness along the way. John Green has a real talent in making his teen characters seem alive. Even the side characters have a strong sense of reality with conflicting motivations and actions that hint of the fundamental insecurity of that transition into adult responsibilities.

That said, I began to be a bit jittery when so much focus was placed on an introspective journey guided by Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Quentin begins to spend a lot of time worrying about seeing people for who they are and the impossibility of knowing what is truly happening in the inner world of those around us. And it turns out that I was right to worry.

As Quentin and friends begin to home in on Margo, it became kind of obvious that there was one of two possibilities in play. Either Margo was a kind of emotional thrill seeker manipulating people for her own satisfaction—essentially a bitch willing to hurt others out of her own emotional pain. Or she is running from a deeper emotional attachment out of fear of the potential pain it may bring, but hoping for a pre-commitment that will allow her to connect with her followers should they find her. Frankly, either option would have worked, though as a romantic I kind of hoped that it was the latter and that the specific emotional fear was a crush/longing/love for Quentin.

I was, therefore, deeply disappointed by the ending when it became clear that Green had split the difference in a confusing mish-mash of pseudo-philosophical meanderings. On the one hand, it is revealed that Margo is, indeed, an unsympathetic bitch. She really had meant to leave everyone and had no intention of them finding her in time to catch up with her. She meant to have the last word, burn all her bridges, and leave people with no way to respond or retaliate (for better or worse).

If Green had left it there I'd have been satisfied. Unhappy, because I like Quentin and don't want him hurt, but life lessons aren't always kind and he's strong enough that he'd recover and be better off in the end. Instead, we are treated to a lot of literary hand-waving, invoking Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar explicitly, and only barely stopping short of full-on Derrida-inspired alienation and the impossibility of understanding or connecting with others. This transition is supposed to soften our perception of Margo by illustrating a deep connection that she shares with Quentin. We're supposed to believe that she really does care for Quentin—maybe even love him.

Unfortunately, I couldn't buy the excuses. If she truly cares, there's no way she wouldn't have at least hoped to be found before she moved on and had a contingency plan for it. Indeed, leaving a hard date (and time!) for leaving her refuge reinforces the impression that she had such a hope. If she didn't, there was no reason to be so explicit, let alone making her deadline public (if obscure). It isn't like she's got a time-dependent place to be, after all.

It feels like John Green wanted a deeper ending than Q and Margo working out some compromise that allows their relationship to grow—like that'd be too simple or something. So instead, we get her acting like she cares but, when found, it becomes clear she never really did. Only then, we have her and Q making a connection as if she actually does care, after all, so, you know, happy ending. Only John Green doesn't want that so they talk-talk about how impossible it is to connect to people, really (and hey, high-sounding literary references, so we're covered), and then they part ways forever. Because, you know, that's better. Deeper, you know.

Bah. Intellectualized pap. ...more

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Oct 09, 2016 Aneela ♒the_mystique_reader♒ rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, a-big-no-no, not-for-me, contemporary

Wasn't expecting such a dumb book by the writer of Faults in Our Stars. ...more

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Apr 28, 2015 Tabetha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"I stopped waving. My head was level with hers as we stared at each other from opposite sides of the glass. I don't remember how it ended...In my memory, it doesn't end. We just stay there, looking at each other, forever."

Quentin ("Q") Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman live next door to each other, and have been bonded and affected by the childhood trauma they experienced together. They have slowly drifted apart, and are now in high school, but in two different worlds. Margo is adventurous, ...more

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About John Green

John Green

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New ...more

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