Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns
by John Green
Release Date: October 16, 2008
by Dutton Juvenile 
Num Pages: 305
Links: Goodreads

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back 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, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues- and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer Q gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Now that I've read 3 books by John Green, I can say with the utmost confidence that he is an amazing writer. He has perfected the art of getting his readers caught up in the worlds he paints for them. 
Coming into this book I had extremely high expectations. The first book I read by him was The Fault in Our Stars and I loved it from the deepest section of my heart. Then a few months later I read Looking For Alaska and that book changed my life--not even exaggerating here. This book reminded me a lot ofLooking For Alaska, but they were by no means the same. So when I saw this book on the shelf of my library, I knew I just had to check it out because John Green had already done so much for me just by writing these books. 
This wasn't my favorite book by John Green (I can't say that it measures up to the perfection of the other two), but it blew my mind away. It didn't make me think as much as Looking For Alaska did, but let me just tell you, this book is a work of art. Combine an interesting plot that only John Green could've thought of, amazing, brilliant characters, laugh-out-loud humor, and you've got Paper Towns in a nutshell. This is a book I will not be forgetting any time soon.

I'll start with the characters because they were definitely my favorite part. I loved Q, maybe even more than Miles (but not as much as Hazel). He was so real, even though I hardly interact with 18 year old guys besides my brother. I think out of all the characters, though, Ben and Radar were my favorites. At first I thought that Ben's whole "hunnybunny" thing was going to be annoying, but it turned out he only really used it at the beginning of the book. Otherwise, Ben was a fabulous character. I had some seriously LOL moments with him, moments when I'd slam the book shut just to get all my laughter out. Despite having a strange reputation, I thought Ben's personality was cute. Radar was just awesome. I loved him. I also liked Margo. She reminded me a LOT of Alaska, but Alaska's character is so good that it can't be used just once. All the other characters were great too, especially Lacey.
The plot of this book didn't seem very interesting at first, but the way John Green expressed it made it SO interesting. I found myself wanting more of it. More of John Green's writing. More of the plot. More of the characters. So I can say now that I will definitely be reading more books by John Green since the experiences I have reading his books have all been wonderful.

All in all Paper Towns was extremely impressive, and when John Green writes books like Looking For Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars then you know that when I say impressive, I mean impressive.

4/5 stars