Paper Towns by John Green

I think that if I hadn’t read and loved The Fault In Our Stars first, I’d likely be more charitable to this book, which was pretty good overall, just not as good. And I guess that’s unfair to Paper Towns, which is a pretty good mystery on its own (and I really liked how convincingly the narrative sounded like an adolescent boy’s) but I didn’t really care for the presentation of the ending or, even, the presentation of the philosophies that underpinned the entire work. I mean, I liked the story elements, and I liked the thoughts behind them, but after the awesome narrative arc of the night of revenge, then the investigation, then the road trip, the ending just felt flat and kinda confused. I guess we’re supposed to draw our own conclusions as to what happens next, and I’m usually okay with that kind of thing, but the last few paragraphs felt unnecessarily contrived. Which means I likely won’t watch the movie (despite my curiosity re: Cara Delevingne,) but I didn’t watch A Fault In Our Stars either (tho that was because of my antipathy towards Shailene Woodley, if I’m being perfectly honest.)

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  1. […] and comfortable tropes of the genre that it really feels deeper and harder, more Normal People than Paper Towns, and frankly better than both in my opinion. It’s honest about sex and love and the perils of […]

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