Maria's Reviews > Paper Towns

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 the book I was going to read today but "A Court of Wings and Ruin" hasn't arrived yet, and I have NO other book to read (except Greek books ugh) so I'm starting this. If I don't start it now I'm afraid I will leave it get dust on my bookshelf forever so.... yah. Wish that I don't hate it as much as I'm waiting to hate it.

So you can see I went into this book a (tiny) bit prejudiced. But I wasn't wrong to be and I don't think had I not being prejudiced once I started it I would have liked it. I'm entirely certain that if I hadn't read this book now, it would have collected dust in my bookshelves for the rest of my days. And I'm glad I got rid of this now because when I look at books in my bookshelves I haven't read it gives me anxiety. Anyway, now let's start with the tea.

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 he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

My past with John Green is not as big as other people's. I had read The Fault in Our Stars a gazillion years ago so I don't remember jack shit and Turtles All the Way Down a few months ago which I truly enjoyed. John Green has the reputation of writing pretentious books so yeah, he didn't disappoint with this one. This is an old book and it showed. Mostly on the part that it entailed little to no diversity. Also some good old misogyny. But it is to be expected with a book published in fucking 2008.

Let's start with what I liked about this book, won't take much time

- ???? ??
- The road trip. I gave this book half a star more because of it. It was fun and entertaining but also unrealistic but this is John Green for ya.
- ?????????
- ???????!!!!
- Lacey and Radar. They were cool.
- ???
- The quotes??? Some inspirational shit.
- ??? ?????
- Yeah.
- This line “Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.” It was the only part in the book that showed Margo to be just a regular girl, not some mythical creature out of this world. I'm very glad it was also included in the movie but let's talk about all these things more later on.

And the tea starts

- Let's start from the first 30 pages. What the fuck was that about? A little 9-8-year-old-whatever-tf girl is doing an investigation on a crime and she goes to the crime scene and the detective or whatever asks the fucking 9-8-year-old-whatever-tf girl if she's with the school newspaper and if she's not, he will answer her questions and then the 9-8-year-old-whatever-tf girl goes to the house next door and a GROWN UP woman tells the 9-8-year-old-whatever-tf girl that the man killed himself because of his divorce and because he was troubled. ????? Who tells a 9-8-year-old-whatever-tf girl these things? Which adult in their right mind does that?? I don't know why I'm stuck at this for so long, but those details weren't included in the movie and I'm very glad of it.
- Margo. Oh man. From now on when people ask me which is the most annoying character for you, I will say her name. Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo Roth Spiegelman. Fucking MARGO ROTH SPIEGELMAN. I didn't even need to look up her name to write it right. It's stuck in my head for the rest of my life. The perfect girl. The myth. The legend. Margo Roth Spiegelman. The Mary Sue to end all Mary Sues. The most entitled bitch to have ever walked the Earth. Margo Roth Spiegelman. I didn't care if she would be found. I knew she would be doing something stupid and "inspirational" or whatever. She didn't deserve the attention she got.
- The characters. I didn't like any of them. Not even Q. Basically from the beginning till the end I didn't care about any of the characters' fates. I just wanted the book to end because I was extremely bored and unsatisfied.
- The plot. What was even the plot?
- The romance. NO.
- The pace. The pace was just... slow after a certain point. So many clues and then some high school stuff and some more clues and some shit Ben kept saying and more clues and then the road trip and then it's over.
- I was rolling my eyes so hard when Q left his fucking GRADUATION in the middle to go find the entitled bitch when she didn't even want to be found. And I hated that his friends followed him. This is where this road trip was unrealistic for me. This would never happen in real life. And that's why they changed it in the movie too.
- I loathed the fact that Margo, after not talking to Q for 10 years or something, she was so confident in going into his room in the middle of the night and asking him for his car and 11 favors. Like... come on. The dude was head over heels in love, otherwise no one would have done that. It's once again... unrealistic.
- I just didn't wait for this book to be over. It was slowly killing me from the inside. I would rather have eaten dog shit than read this book. It was this bad for me.

And now let's discuss the movie adaptation

Listen to my incredible story for a bit. When I read books which have been adapted into movies or tv shows I ALWAYS WATCH THEM. NO MATTER IF I WANT TO RIP THE BOOK IN TWO I ALWAYS WATCH THE MOVIE OR THE TV SHOW THAT IS INSPIRED BY IT. ALWAYS. So, after hearing this, you will realize I didn't watch the movie because I liked the book, but because I always do. And it's also an excuse for me lately to watch movies, because if I don't watch a movie in the cinema, I never do at home. I'm more of a books and tv shows kind of gal, what can you do?

So, let's start! The movie made the story and the characters a little bit more interesting. It cut out the boring parts and added some very funny and nice scenes that lacked in the book. I liked that they didn't lose their graduation for the road trip to find Margo, because it was totally bollocks. I liked the changes they made with that aspect of the book. I liked the casting, I think it was spot on. Except Margo and not because Cara isn't good enough for the part but because of her weight. Margo is supposed to be "curvy" and she got "bullied" by Lacey because of her figure. And I hated that they didn't keep this part in the movie because there wasn't any real reason after all for Margo to be hating Lacey. And just... don't erase curvy people. Margo was supposed to be "the most perfect and popular girl in the entire school" and she was curvy. Just let that part in, damn it. Also, this movie's description must have been: THE FRIENDZONE OF THE FRIENDZONES. Honestly, why make Q's love for Margo unrequited? When it was the opposite in the book? I didn't understand this change. It was unnecessary and it didn't add anything to the plot. But, to sum it up, the movie was a good enough adaptation for this book. But I didn't like it. Because I didn't like the book. Duh.

In conclusion, this book was a nightmare for me, from start to finish. I didn't earn anything from this book, not lessons, not a new ship, not new favorite characters, nothing. I just wanted it to end. I know it's a popular book and I'm very sorry for this negative review, but not all books are for everyone. And till the next one... K BYE!