Paper Towns - What's Your Opinion??

nat_the_human

So my friend, an unofficial nerdfighter just got a copy of Paper Town's on my recommendations and wasn't 100% if she loved more or less than Looking For Alaska, so I was wondering what everyone else thought?

Where on the ladder of Awesome does Paper Town's stand?

Vicki

Alaska was my least favourite, so I'd definitely put paper towns above Alaska. To me, paper towns has taught me the biggest lesson, if that makes any sense, and is second only to TFioS on the front of curling up in the corner and dying of feels. Personally, it's my joint favourite with TFioS, although, from what people say, I get the impression that's not a particularly popular opinion. 

Guysaac

I think a guy who thinks of a girl as a perfect idea is a great starting point for teaching us to think of people as people. I've had obsessive crushes before and they are not emotionally healthy or good at all. You totally aren't imagining the girl complexly because you're imagining her as all you ever have and ever will want/need. People aren't good enough to satisfy that kind of 'need'. Nothing is, really. 

This book lays all those things out and of course the grand point of imagining others complexly overall in a well organized and very readable manner. It's also hilarious.

Terahertz

Everybody I ask seems to have Paper Towns as favourite before TFIOS, but for me, Looking for Alaska is so much better. Each to their own, I suppose, but LfA just tore me apart. I knew what was going to happen, who would die, before I started the book, but it still really moved me, watching everyone deal with it. I can't talk anymore without spoiling it fully, but I thouht it was amazing.
Paper Towns was great, and has a really important message, but it never moved me like Alaska did.

sparklezjolras

I think that Paper Towns is a bit underneath TFIOS, and TFIOS is a bit underneath Alaska.

Alaska was the first one I read, and I was immediately hooked and it was one of those books that I never wanted to end because it had such a big impact and I felt like it was one of those books that would help me through my own labyrinth. It's the book that I turn to when I'm having an existential crisis, and it's the book that I would want to pass down to someone. 

I love Paper Towns, don't get me wrong, but I feel like Alaska and TFIOS had a bigger impact and were more moving. I'm still trying to decide whether or not TFIOS and Paper Towns are in the same rank or if one of them is above the other though, but for now, my ranking is Alaska, TFIOS, Paper Towns, WGWG, Katherines.

nat_the_human

Ahh I have spent many an english class trying to draw up the ladder of awesome of John's books, and someone did point out to me that if LfA and TFiOS tied why not put Zombicorns on top??

XD

BowmanTheShowman

I just didn't fancy Paper Towns. It was a little to unbelievable to me, and I did not like Margo Roth Spiegleman's character at all. 

nat_the_human

Margo's character was pretty intense, probably one of those love em' or hate em' characters!

Dr_America1776

I loved all of his books and the characters were all three dimensional. He had amazing characters in their own right but when it comes to moral I would say paper towns. The problem is more common. We don't always view people as people. I think paper towns teaches the better lesson

FalloutFantasy

Margo was so fictionalized and made into this fantasy girl but in the end, all those feelings were burned when you learned how flawed she really was. 

GigiGiraffe

I finished Paper Towns today and with it finished the last of John's books (thus far!). I must say that the ending - Margo's reaction mainly- took me by surprise. I didn't think I had an idea of what would happen, yet I didn't think it'd end like that. I agree that occasionally the pacing seemed to be held back a little. but I really appreciate the message of the story, and that's what matters to me personally. The idea of accepting that people are the way they are, that we are as we are, and we can interpret others a million different ways but in the end, our imaginings about them could be very wrong is an important one. I feel John used the narrative to get that message across clearly, and that maybe that extra time spent building up to what would happen was meant to prolong and emphasize the way in which Q sees Margo, so we understand it more.
TFiOS is definitely my favourite of John's books, but as of yet I'm uncertain as to what order they come in for me beyond that (or even if they need an order!)

MasterPadawan

I love the idea and the problems that are kind of spoken in Paper Towns, but I didn't really like too much of how John passed them. I liked the book, and maybe it was just me that didn't understand it so well, but I don't think it was John's best, to me Looking for Alask and TFiOS were so much better, in terms of passing a message and answering some problems.

Overall I just thought that the plot was a bit exagerated maybe but the idea is amazing, isn't my least favorite but it's not my favorite either, but I would still recommend it to anyone as a great book.

DinoDudeDillon

I didn't like Looking For Alaska and An Abundance Of Katherines as much as The Fault In Our Stars and Paper Towns. I'm unsatisfied by the ending of Looking For Alaska, besides that it was great. An Abundance Of Katherines was good and unlike Looking For Alaska I agree with the entire theme of it, I just don't think it's as well written as his other novels.

thatshortnerd

Paper Towns is my favorite by far! I love the ending--not really knowing what's next for the characters. This book (to me) embraces John's "books belong to their readers" philosophy more so than his other books (LfA a close second). At the end we can decide, in a sense, if Q will really go back to college or if Margo will actually go to New York. I also love the debunk of the dream girl--the reminder that no one actually is what we build them up to be in our minds.

halogenhedgehog

I've read all of John's books, and Paper Towns is my favorite. I devoured the book, and I love the insanity mixed with deep thoughts in it. LFA is my second favorite, TFIOS shortly after. I don't know, I love both Paper Towns and LFA, maybe because the protagonist is a little bit more relatable in both than in TFIOS and both the endings are sort of unclear.

opaldoesnotrhyme

Paper Towns is my favorite John book. I think it's because it's really relatable for me, but also because it's like an understated intellectual thing.

CrystalthePenguin

Paper Towns isn't my favorite John book but it's the most relatable to me throughout but the ending was just....eh?

I have heard from many people Alaska is a lot better than Paper Towns and TFioS and I will look forward to reading it.

Misswoolhat

Alright, admittedly I have not read Looking for (Baked) Alaska (as my mom likes to call it), but currently Paper Towns is my favourite one of John's books (Alaska is on hold at the library now...). As much as I love Katherines and TiFOS, Paper Towns takes the cake (only by a little.) I think it's probably because I related so much to Margo and the fact that this girl loves metaphors and the whole thing was just metaphor after metaphor with a heck of a lot of life lessons thrown in.  
I loved Katherines, it was a funky book with lots of laughs, and I really liked the message of "You can't predict love." And TiFOS was wonderful and extremely tearful, and it also had amazing metaphorical linings. 
So yep... That's my opinion on said subject!  

AcrylicAfternoons

I'm inclined to think I probably love Looking for Alaska more.  There are definitely (a lot of) things I love about Paper Towns, but there's just something...

I think it's how conscious the characters are of the main symbols & metaphors in the dialogue.  It just feels kind of weird for me.  Like in TFiOS, Augustus is trying to construct meaning & metaphors everywhere, but those aren't the main metaphors in the book.  Whereas the strings & the vessels & stuff in Paper Towns felt more like major metaphors to me & I think I found it weird that the characters were so aware of trying to pick them apart & figure them out...  Like, they talk about them the way I think about metaphors when I'm trying to figure them out in my own writing, so it felt too artificial, I think?

77Palindrome

Paper Towns was my favorite Jon Green book, and at the moment it's possibly my favorite book.

77Palindrome

John*

sophialovesweets

Paper Towns is my favourite of John's books with exception of TFIOS. Margo's idea of seeing a person as a person, nothing more or less, was truly an inspiration. How John fit in metaphor's with every part of the book was really cool. 

mikareader

Paper Towns was the book that got me started Nerdfighting, so I'd have to say its my favorite with Looking For Alaska. But to be fair, all of John's books are AMAZING, so really i think they are all fantastic but if i had to, i would pick those as my favorites just because they mean so much to me and they are some of my most favorite books and that is a very very very hard thing to accomplish.

katnisskitt

I loved it.

mrsscraig

I feel like Margo is one of those characters that you either LOVE or HATE. So well, I loved the character, that's why I loved the book and it was really.... one of my favorites. But I guess that if you hate the character well you won't like the book, because you will think it is quite stupid, because of Q's search.

rainstorm

I haven't read Looking For Alaska yet (I will soon, but I'm finishing An Abundance of Katherines before I read Alaska) but I kind of likes Paper Towns because I liked how John Green made me hate Margo a bit, which means John is great at perfectly shaping his characters and making his readers talk to a fictional character that would most likely not hear their good and/or bad comments about them at all.

Luke_Earl_Molle

paper towns like all of the other books that john wrote have made me see something in me and the part it made me see was a part that i know others have seen because really they comment on it and really its two parts and its probabaly my second favorite book by john after katherines which is my favorite because its just amazing all of his books are amazing but it caught me but paper towns is such a good book and really that parts of me it revealed where my crazy part which is really just most of me and my not being confident with girls until they make me and if a book can reveal parts of me to me and inspire me to be better it gets my vote

ArdentWildfire

I typically don't like to think of any book as being better than another, I tend to think of each book on it's own in terms of whether it's good based on my personal opinion. 

With that being said, Paper Towns is an amazing story. Character development and John's way of writing dialogue tells the story in such a unique way I just can't help but feel like I'm part of the story. 

clausit

I've read all John's books apart from WGWG, and Paper Towns is my favorite by far. For me the endings of Alaska and TFiOS let them down and while I like aAoK, it's doesn't hit nearly as hard as Paper Towns for me. Partly this might be because I just relate to Q really strongly, but also it's because I get what it's trying to say much more clearly and powerfully. I have never really struggled with disease or grief the way Hazel and Pudge have to. But I know what it feels like to fall in love with someone and then discover that they were not the person you thought they were, and neither is anyone else because you can't truly know another person.

claraoswald

Paper towns is actually my favorite, closely fallowed by LfA. I agree with clausit that paper towns hit home much harder for me. However that isnt because i related to Q, im on the other side of the looking glass, im very much like Margo. Its uncanny. And had my life been slightly different i probably would have done what she did.  

strukbylightnin

I love Paper Towns, and it is my favorite John Green novel. Margo is the kind of character you love or hate, and from the beginning I loved her. The thing that was fantastic, though, is that usually when I have a character I love, I only really love the parts that they are in. The thing about Paper Towns is that I loved Margo and yet I was totally fine when she wasn't there...I loved every moment from beginning to end. The other thing is that I decided I like Margo right at the beginning, and yet at the end I was still able to become frustrated at her and at Q. Q was the lifeline into the story and so typically one becomes biased toward his view...and while I could always see his point, I did not always agree with it. The entire book made me think deeply about really life in general and yet still had humor. I think it was truly a fantastic novel. Don't get me wrong, I loved LfA and TFiOS, but the ideas explored in Paper Towns just really...struck me.