Review: Paper Towns by John Green

How I came to know about this book: I learnt about it in a group of Goodreads. You can check out the group here.

Format of the book: Ebook (epub version).

Genre: Young Adult/ Contemporary

Length of the Book: 305 pages (for hardcover).

A short synopsis:  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. (Goodreads Description)

Characters of the book: Quentin Jacobsen or Q, Margo Roth Spiegelman, Ben, Radar, Laecy Becca, Jase, Chuck Parson, Angela, Parents of Q and Margo and a detective.

My Review: 


I started reading this book as part of a group read in Goodreads and so I'd first grant my thanks to the moderators of the group for making me pick up this amazing book.

As soon as I started the book, I fell in love with the plot almost immediately. The book has 3 parts and I'll try to summarize my review in three separate parts.

Part one:

The book features Q as the narrator. This part of the book is absolutely brilliant. It makes you familiar to the characters and describes their life as the students of Senior year in the High School. It  has a funny side as well. Ben being called as Bloody Ben, Radar's crazy obsession with Omnictionary, Chuck Parson as a bully, the bonding of Q, Ben and Radar- everything has separate aspects and are described beautifully.

And to talk about Margo, in-spite of being neighbours, Q and Margo don't hang out together. Q knew Margo loved mysteries from one incident that had taken place when they were 9 years old and thus he says: "Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one."
The night Margo and Q spent together was amusing. Margo and her ways of doing things, I've loved them immensely.

Par two:
As Q believes Margo has left clues for him (before disappearing) to find her, he does everything possible to do that. While progressing in this searching agenda Q discovers and rediscovers Margo and makes out her reason for leaving and somehow Margo's disappearance made Q understand a few things about life, about himself, like :"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."
But I think this part was a bit too much dragged and thus boring. The searching procedure and the descriptions of Prom night was too long for me (specially because the main story has nothing to do with that directly). Things could have been cut short but well..

P.S.- I even spent a few hours in my college library reading Whitman's "Song of Myself" thinking that I might find some clue about Margo's whereabouts. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish it. :-P

Part three:
This again could be written precisely, I mean the description of each hour wasn't really necessary.
Anyway the end, though a bit depressing, was genuine. Nothing dramatic happens and the characters stick to their own ideas. That is what I love about the book. Somehow I knew Margo couldn't be dead, so in a way it was kinda predictable.
Besides I loved the lucid writing of the author. The portrayal of the characters is beautiful. I learnt a thing that is every person is like himself, and you can't expect others to be like you, everyone has their own ways.

In short, it was an enjoyable read throughout and I recommend it.

Rating:

My Reaction:

P.S- This is my first book review on this blog, so obviously I'm excited about it. I'd love to hear from you all. Opinions are wholeheartedly welcome. :)