Paper Towns Review!

Spoiler Free


Although I have unfortunately and shamelessly neglected this blog for a couple of months, I haven't neglected the world of literature so I do have plenty of books to catch up on to review! 

Starting with one that I surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed; Paper Towns.

I have no misunderstanding or am I unappreciative of the fine works of John Green's spectacular writing style, however at times I thought his stories to be a bit overrated. I was included in the hype of The Fault In Our Stars book and then the exciting build up to the film, but looking back I can't say it was my favourite book, nor it even being my favourite contemporary book. Nonetheless it was still an emotional yet enjoyable book to read. I then went on to buying and reading Looking For Alaska and was utterly disappointed and underwhelmed. I found the story to be uneventful and I didn't have any strong emotions towards the characters. Therefore, my initial thought was - is TFIOS John Green's only really good book? 

I thought I had lost faith in his books. I do want to now just say I don't think his books are bad. Far from it. John Green has an incredibly talent to use words so well and eloquently when describing everyday life: using metaphorical explanations and techniques when describing that make us laugh and cry. I just had high expectations for LfA and I just didn't like it as much as I wanted to. 

I didn't think I would read Paper Towns as Charlotte loved LfA and enjoyed that more than Paper Towns. However I love film, so thought it only be right to read the book before the film came out. And my repetitive thoughts when reading every page up until the last was that I love it. 

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs 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...

-Goodreads Synopsis

Contemporary novels have never been my favourite, so for one to spark something in me is special. Paper Towns did just that. I think the main pure enjoyment I got from this book was that I found it so funny. The effortless and witty humour of John Green's evident opinion on perhaps unique but totally relatable teenage protagonists made me fall in love with them. All of them. This had my laughing out loud at the fast paced dialogue between the three boys: Quentin, Ben and Radar. I think the main love I instantly had for the characters (particularly the boys) was that I familiarised them with my own friends who can be described as geeky, kind, funny and weird. 

The chapters featuring around the relationship between Quentin and Margo I sped through as it was so easy to just be fascinated in their infatuation with one another. But by far my favourite part of the book (and the majority of it) is when the team stick together and try and find the mysterious Margo. 

For me, the book is so strongly based around the theme of friendship more than anything which is why I respected and adored it so much. I also learnt from it. I sometimes find with friendships that I can be disappointed with how someone deals with something or treats me. However this book had me understanding that people's individuality and flaws makes them who they are, and I think this helped me reflect and have a better understanding and forgiving for people and their actions. 



My favourite quote from the book -

“Isn't it also that on some fundamental level we find it difficult to understand that other people are human beings in the same way that we are? We idealize them as gods or dismiss them as animals.”

Overall, I loved this book. The books I usually read are often filled with despair and tragedy, which I find interesting and gripping. Although, occasionally I want to read a book that just fills me with happiness and satisfaction and this book (much like Fangirl) accomplished that, so I am therefore rating Paper Towns 8/10 and would personally definitely recommend and class as one of my favourite contemporary novels. I also am very excited to see this book's adaptation and come to life on the screen later this month.

Hannah

 ♥

Solitaire Review

Spoiler Free

I read Solitaire quite a while back along with a few others as I just couldn't stop reading. Which was good but I never got anything done because of it. So here it finally is my Solitaire review. Its written by Alice Oseman who I had no idea about, but I saw some good reviews and thought why not. 

The books protagonist is Victoria Spring. She drinks diet lemonade a lot and her hobbies consist of sleeping and blogging which I can relate to. Shes goes to an all girls school which is linked to an all boys, however for sixth form you can chose which ever one you wish. Shes very much a pessimist and has a very negative outlook on life, she just doesn't care. Which I sort of liked about her, it wasn't like she was this boy crazy, party animal teenager.  Although this got very exhausting because she was constantly judging people for the way they were, and this I did not like. 
"The large majority of teenagers who attend Higgs are soulless, conformist idiots. I have successfully integrated myself into a small group of girls who I consider to be "good people," but sometimes I still feel that I might be the only person with a consciousness, like a video game protagonist, and everyone else are computer-generated extras who have only a select few actions, such as "initiate meaningless conversation" and "hug."
It felt like she thought she was better than everyone else because she didn't conform to social acceptance. I did like her and I could relate to how she was feeling but I can understand why people would hate her.

Micheal Holden, is a very...weird character lets just say and Tori is more or less juxtapose to Micheal. I have come to realise that Alice Oseman likes to come up with very depressing and weird characters in this book. He has very interesting hobbies but I wont say anything that will spoil the book too much. There is also Lucas who is a childhood friend of Tori's. Throughout this book shes quite rude to him and it actually made me feel a bit sorry for his character because he was nothing but nice to her, again proving shes a bit of a bitch.  
The main basis of this book is around this group called 'Solitaire', who like to play pranks around Higgs. All Tori wants to know is who is causing them and what they mean, this is where Micheal comes in because like Tori he wants to find out who is behind this. 

What I didn't like about the book was that it didn't feel special to me, unlike If you Find Me which is one of my favourite books. Yes after I thought "wow I liked this" but it didn't last long. I read others peoples thoughts and I started to agree and criticize the book. However I give my props for Oseman for publishing her books at only the age of 19! And because of that I am impressed as not a lot of people can write that deeply or even write such complex characters. The writing flowed nicely and I didn't get bored of the style, I would gladly read another Alice Oseman book so therefore i give this 6.5/10. 

Charlotte 

♥