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Paper Towns

John Green

Start date: January 1, 2013

Finish date: January 31, 2013

Discussion: Stand Alone

Why we're reading this: It won the poll for the January random BOTM.
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Stand Alone

* Stand Alone- Maybe Meant to Be
By Bailey · 3 posts · 29 views

last updated Aug 18, 2025 12:04PM

* Stand Alone- The Summer of Broken Rules
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What Members Thought

Apr 06, 2009 Michael rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2009

Maybe it's that I read all three of John Green novels in close succession, but I still have to say that "Paper Towns" is the weakest of his first three novels.

Quentin Jacobson has grown up next door to Margo Roth Spielgman and always harbored a crush on her. The two had a moment as eight year olds where they discovered a dead body in the woods near their home together. But since then, they've not really been what you'd call friends.

Until one night when Margo sneaks into Q's room and asks him to Maybe it's that I read all three of John Green novels in close succession, but I still have to say that "Paper Towns" is the weakest of his first three novels.

Quentin Jacobson has grown up next door to Margo Roth Spielgman and always harbored a crush on her. The two had a moment as eight year olds where they discovered a dead body in the woods near their home together. But since then, they've not really been what you'd call friends.

Until one night when Margo sneaks into Q's room and asks him to come along on an adventure. Q agrees and the two embark on a campaign including spray paint, a big jar of Vasoline, several catfish and a trip to Sea-World. In a lot of ways, it feels like Margo is bringing her life in an Orlando suburb to a close. Q figures it might be for Margo to get ready to go off to college--that is, until she vanishes the next day.

Apparently, this isn't the first time Margo has left home. But since she's 18, there's little her family can do about it.

Her disappearance and their adventures leave Q a bit disconcerted since he felt the two might have made a connection on their late night spree. He becomes determined (you might even say obsessed) with finding out where Margo has gone and why, eventually dragging in some of his friends on the quest.

One of the strengths of "Paper Towns" is that it keeps the fate of Margo very vague for much of the story. As rumors of where she's gone or what fate could have befallen her abound, the readers are presented with just enough supporting evidence to make each assumption reasonable but still keep you guessing.

And maybe it would have been better to leave it that way instead of the resolution we do get. Not knowing what happened to Margo might have been more interesting than what we eventually find out.

As I said, this was the least satifsying for Green's novels I've read so far. And it could be that I read them in rapid succession after enjoying "An Ambundance of Katherines" and have grown tired of quirky first-person narrators and the zany objects of affection they find. ...more

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Mar 18, 2014 Renuka rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, adventure, realistic, humor, e-book, contemporary, reviewed, bittersweet, genre-challenge-2014

Actual Rating: 3.5

This book should be renamed Looking for Alaska with An Overabundance of Metaphors and Walt Whitman. I feel so sad for disliking what should have been a good book, but....it's just another John Green novel. I saw so many parallels to Looking For Alaska (beautiful wild girl who is inherently sad, boy in love with girl, quest for understanding blah blah) that it took away from my enjoyment of the novel.

It starts off phenomenally. I was laughing out loud so hard as Margo took Quent ...more

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Apr 14, 2015 Kelly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

This book drew me in more intellectually than emotionally. I wouldn't say I was emotionally detached from the story or characters, but they didn't make me feel all that much. I wasn't absorbed by the story the way I was drawn in emotionally with The Fault in Our Stars. I'd like to give this book 4 stars, but I won't because of that. I'm not sure why I didn't connect in that way, but I didn't. And it's disappointing because I really enjoy John Green's writing style. There are some beautifully wri This book drew me in more intellectually than emotionally. I wouldn't say I was emotionally detached from the story or characters, but they didn't make me feel all that much. I wasn't absorbed by the story the way I was drawn in emotionally with The Fault in Our Stars. I'd like to give this book 4 stars, but I won't because of that. I'm not sure why I didn't connect in that way, but I didn't. And it's disappointing because I really enjoy John Green's writing style. There are some beautifully written passages here. I'll give it 3.5 stars.

I loved how poetry drove the story and Quentin and Margo. There is a part of me that loves poetry, even though admittedly I don't always understand it. But I'm fascinated by it and how it can say so much in so few words. There are so many small truths and wisdoms in poetry. It applies to different people in different ways at the same time. So I was drawn in to the fact that Q finds understanding and clarity through Walt Whitman. I think I identify with Q because his crowd was in many ways my crowd in high school. I like that he is a good kid, that he is smart, that he loves his parents and admits he needs them, especially his mom. There are very few books written for teens and young adults that I've read that have a main character like that, and it's refreshing.

I also have spent a lot of time thinking about relationships over the last year. So the idea of paper towns and paper people struck a chord with me. The fact that you could know some one for 16 years but really have no idea about them: what they like, what they hope for, what they value. We only know what we know about others because it is either what they show us or what we choose to see, or a combination. Maybe it's okay not to see everyone as they truly are, and maybe we need to keep a part of ourselves hidden behind our "windows". But at the same time, do we always take the time for others that we should? Do we see what we want to see because seeing what's really there takes too much time and effort? Do we see what we want to see because it's more comfortable or fits into our way of thinking more easily than facing the reality of what's there? I would suggest that we take Whitman's advice and Listen more often. There is power in Listening.

Also, I loved Q's parents. They are so self absorbed and academic in the way they talk, it made me laugh. No one talks like that in real life, not even psychologists. (At least, not the psychologists I know.) It's hilarious. And Q's mom better be really pretty in the movie or it's gonna make Ben's obsession with her seem totally creepy, instead of a little creepy. "Q, if I were you, I would get that scared Every. Single. Night." :) ...more

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