Paper Towns by John Green

Hey guys! Lydia is back!! It's been a while since I've written on this blog! Today, I'll be reviewing a book I've wanted to read for quite a while and finally managed to, Paper Towns by John Green.

I've been wanting to read this book ever since news of the movie came out and when I finally managed to get my hands on it, it didn't disappoint. This book is about a teenaged boy called Quentin Jacobsen aka Q who's had this huge crush on his neighbour Margo Roth Speigelman since young. Margo is a mysterious girl who loves adventure and has spent her childhood escaping home to wherever her impulsiveness takes her. One night, Margo crawls through Q's window and brings him on a crazy hit-and-run adventure around the neighbourhood to get revenge at her cheating boyfriend and her fake friends.

The next day, Margo disappears again and as the days go by, she still hasn't returned and Q starts getting more and more worried. But Margo is known to leave clues about where she's going so with his best friends Ben and Radar, Q is sure Margo left those clues for him and is determined to find her. On the day of their high school graduation, the three boys with Ben's new girlfriend and Margo's friend Lacey take the long drive to a non-existent "paper town" called Agloe, New York. Do they eventually find her? You'll have to read the book to find out.

I like how this coming-of-age story kind of turns into a mini mystery as the three friends try to get into Margo's mind and understand the clues she left behind. The characters in the book also all have their own individual personality types that make them memorable - Q as the introverted shy guy, Ben as the hyper, loud, slightly horny friend and Radar as the geeky one. I particularly love Margo's carefree, YOLO personality and how she's not afraid to break free from society's restrictions so she can find herself.

As expected from an author like John Green, his humour and fun personality that I get from watching his videos is clearly evident in this book. He writes from a teenager's perspective so well and I can almost imagine the characters' voices and images in my head as I read the story. That's what makes this story so much more relatable to me as a teenager as well and just brings the whole story and its characters to life.

Overall, it's a story of love, friendship and finding adventure in our everyday life, with elements of maturity and growth balanced with the somewhat frivolity of teenaged life. I'm even more curious about watching the movie now after reading this book cos I heard that it's a little different from the book and I'd like to see how they adapted the book for the movie. So that's it for my long-overdue book review, I'm in the middle of reading another book right now and I'll definitely review that once I'm done!

Lydia