Paper Towns in WordNerds

Jun 14, 2011 Bonnie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, ya-contemporary, 2008-books

I feel like Green and I can’t get along because we fundamentally disagree about his heroines. Also about his heroes. I’m leaving aside The Fault in Our Stars because I think that book was less about his usual Zany Love Interest Shakes Up The Dull Life of The Hero(ine) than about cancer.

But this book and Looking for Alaska are two of a pair. Green spends a lot of time TRYING to deconstruct the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. He will spend a lot of time being all Hey! I get it! Margo (/Alaska) Manic Pixi I feel like Green and I can’t get along because we fundamentally disagree about his heroines. Also about his heroes. I’m leaving aside The Fault in Our Stars because I think that book was less about his usual Zany Love Interest Shakes Up The Dull Life of The Hero(ine) than about cancer.

But this book and Looking for Alaska are two of a pair. Green spends a lot of time TRYING to deconstruct the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. He will spend a lot of time being all Hey! I get it! Margo (/Alaska) Manic Pixie Dream Girl! And the hero knows it too! Look, I’m talking about mirrors and windows and how Q should stop treating Margo like an idea and start treating her like a person! And then – Q IS STILL COMPLETLEY OBSESSED WITH MARGO. Like, He-Skips-His-Graduation-And-Drives-For-Three-Days-Straight-And-Almost-Dies is completely obsessed with Margo. He spends the entire time after Margo disappears the first time ignoring almost everything except Margo’s absence and his quest to find her, like some demented white knight. He even gets really angry at his best friend Ben when he actually spends time with his girlfriend instead of helping Q obsess about Margo. Q has a thousand epiphanies about how Margo is NOT his Manic Pixie Dream Girl and she’s just a fucked up girl and he STILL TREATS HER LIKE HIS MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL.

Margo is not only not a super special amazing girl – she is a fairly terrible person who, if not actually crazy, is incredibly selfish – and barely apologizes for it. She’s gone for months and doesn’t bother to let anyone know she’s alive – not her parents, not her kid sister, not her friends, not anyone. And, I’m sorry, maybe her parents are heinous – but maybe they are just exhausted and at wit’s end about being the parents of Margo Roth Spiegelman, the Girl Who Keeps Running Away And Doesn’t Give a Shit About Anyone Else. I feel like it’s a little something like being the parent of a drug addict. Yes, they should’ve gotten her help (a therapist is a start). But they aren’t SO AWFUL that they don’t deserve an “I’m alive!” phone call.

And WTF is up with Margo consciously trying to be Quentin’s MPDG? She tells him she thinks he is super boring and she didn’t want to be his friend – she just wanted to shake up his life and make him more interesting/brave. God woman.

The side characters were hit and miss. One of Q's friends, Ben, was SUPER annoying with all his talk of “honeybunnies.” He apparently just needed a girlfriend (/to get laid?) because as soon as he got one he stopped being a little horntoad and actually became a human being. Radar, Q's other friend, seemed cool and normal and smart and frankly way too awesome to be friends with these two losers (one obsessed with Margo Roth Spiegelman, one who is a creep). ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2013 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

Reading John Green is like drinking a glass of cold water after sipping at too many different milkshakes and sodas. The voice of his main character is strong and realistic, the pacing is great, and everything about the novel feels smart yet accessible. Paper Towns tells the story of Quentin Jacobsen’s attempt to follow the clues his dream girl, Margo Roth Spiegelman, left before running away from home weeks before high school graduation. Like any natural John Green character, Margo has made her ...more

Like · see review

May 01, 2012 Alyssa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

Like

Apr 19, 2013 nagako rated it liked it · review of another edition

Like

From the Bookshelf of WordNerds…

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

What Members Thought

WordNerds