A John Green Habit...

SPOILER ALERT.  Sort of.

After finishing Paper Towns, I immediately made a connection between another book written by John Green, the one and only The Fault in Our Stars.  Both were beautifully written and very enjoyable books that starred romantic teens.  What else did they both have?  Heart breaking endings that did not satisfy the need for fairy tale endings that Disney movies have been spoon feeding me since I watched my first VHS tapes.  I won't go too far into what the ending of The Fault in the Stars in case you haven't read it, but it made me cry on the plane ride I was on.  I had to stop reading and finish it when I got home I was so upset.  When I did finish it I threw it on the floor in frustration and went to find comfort in sugary foods.  Little did I know I would have the exact same reaction when I finished my second John Green novel.  I chucked the paperback across my bedroom, and then stormed out and slammed the door behind me.  There were no tears this time, but I was furious with John Green.  I also drew a correlation between John Green and unsatisfactory endings.
John Green writes incredible love stories that make readers believe that love will always find away.  Usually in the form of some sort of great adventure that makes the reader wish they had a life that was nearly that cool.  Then, at the very last moment, he snatches it away.  His beautiful tales of young adults is just too good to be true, and has the reader floating along, hanging on every word.  When the reader is in love with the love he has depicted, he cuts the cord and the reader falls onto the cement.  Even though I am incredibly upset with him, I want to read another one of his books to see if he will do something similar.  Ugh.

Narrator of Paper Towns

For his novel Paper Towns, John Green has made the narrator the main character: Quentin Jacobson. Quentin seems to be like many fictional high school students: not very involved, has a group of friends but still doesn't really fit in, and still can't seem to win over the girl of his dreams.  All of his reactions so far seem very believable: afraid when he and his friend discovered a dead body at a young age, distaste for prom and the boyfriend of his love interest, and surprise when his love interest reaches out to him again through a window after years of silence between them.  Quentin only has a limited perspective, so I have yet to discover that actual reasoning behind Margo Roth Spiegelman's decision to reconnect with Quentin and this will add a great deal of suspense as the adventures between them promised on the jacket of the book occur.  So far, Quentin's perspective has made me hate his high school as much as he does.  I have no interest in being around the bullies or the cool kids or watching Margo talk to her boyfriend who is obviously not as good for her as Quentin.  Also, I can't wait to find out what Margo has to say to him after all this time because I don't understand why the close bond between them Quentin described has just fallen between the cracks.  Even though the narrator has insisted that prom is the last thing we want (he wants), I'm not going to lie...I really want him to end up going to prom with her.  With that, Quentin's being the narrator has established that high school is bad, but Margo Roth Spiegelman is the bright spot in that hell hole and now I'm left to wonder what effect she is going to have on him in the end.