Paper Towns - John Green

I had been mulling over whether or not to read this book for a while. I'd been so enchanted with previous novels of Green's that I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this quite as much. I like to think of John green as an author who, in many years to come, will be considered an iconic author of our time simply for his ability to make every single character he writes completely identifiable, even if you have absolutely nothing in common with them; for example, Hazel in The Fault in our Stars.

The book did have a slow start in my opinion, and I spent the first few chapters idly wondering whether it was going to take off at all or if I was going to have to struggle through to the end. I am pleased to announce however that it did pick up, although it didn't have me truly gripped until the last few chapters.

As with most John Green books, the action of finishing the book, closing it and laying it down next to me brought about such an intense feeling of satisfaction. I seem to get this with each of his novels-although I can't quite put my finger on what the feeling truly is. I say satisfaction, but in reality it is so much more. I feel happy, content, accomplished, relaxed-the list goes on, and I think it's so brilliant that one author has the power to make you feel so at one with the world, despite the ending of his novel not necessarily being a happy one. 

Green manages to perfectly capture the awkward late teenage years when you're trying to discover who you truly are and show the world that you've got it all figured out, whereas in reality you're a hormone addled wreck who can only think of sex and relationships and when that homework assignment was actually due in. Reading his novels makes me so nostalgic for my own teenage years, but because he doesn't paint these years as perfection with happy endings and everything working out in the end, it makes me feel so much better about my own mistakes, and I think this is the true beauty. 

John Green really does portray the world we live in with complete, brutal honesty and this is something that should be applauded and encouraged.

(I realised this has become less of a review than a massive fan post dedicated to John Green so, for want of coming across as a completely embarrassing super fan, go read the book it's good. I promise.)