Movie Release and Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

I'm a huge fan of John Green, and when I saw his book The Fault in our Stars hit the big screen I thought the movie adaptation was amazing. So when it was announced that he has another novel being made into a movie, I immediately locked the date on my calendar!

Well, Paper Towns movie release is tomorrow - Friday, July 24, 2015, so I thought I'd share a bit about the book, my review, and the movie trailer. Enjoy!

Original Book Cover

Paper Towns by John Green

Published: October 1, 2008

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens

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

My Thoughts

Original Review Date: November 2010

thiS reView desErves A moMent oF ranDom capitaliZation

joHn greeN, i'M convinCed thiS stoRy Is abOut yoU. thEre Is nO wAy You cAn naiL tHe emoTions aNd thouGhts Of tHese Characters withoUt hAving experIenced somE Of thE aWesomeness fouNd In thIs boOk!!

Okay, back to normal...
Quentin's two best friends are Ben, a tragically confident first clarinet band geek that is trying to live down a kidney infection rumor, and Radar, a nerdtastic computer genius that spends most of his time editing Omnictionary posts and hiding the fact that his parents own the largest collection of black Santas. But, Quentin Jacobsen, aka Q, is just a regular high school guy that happens to fall for Margo Roth Spiegelman, an amazing, but complex girl, who crawls into his window one night dressed as a ninja and takes him on the adventure of his life. After that amazing night, he spends the rest of the school year trying to find this girl and figure out who she really is, but just ends up discovering that no matter how hard you try, you can’t make your fantasy into reality.

This story is heartwarming, humorous and an instant hit for me. Not to mention the extra wow factor found in Part III that included a road trip. That's right baaaayyyyybbbbeeee a road trip! The characters are loveable in that John Green magic sorta way, and the dialog is hilariously funny and engaging. There is no doubt this book deserves its accolades, and I can’t wait to see it translated to film.

Lastly, Green makes me terribly happy that I was born a girl because if his books are any indication of what goes through a teenage boy’s mind, I’d be in serious need of therapy. Great book that’s signature of Green’s ability to make you laugh out loud, cringe with chagrin and ponder things you never considered. Loved it!

Quotes that made me think
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.

What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.

I'm starting to realize that people lack good mirrors. It's so hard for anyone to show us how we look, and so hard for us to show anyone how we feel.

As much as life can suck, it always beats the alternative.

If you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all.

Quotes that made me laugh and/or sigh
Tonight, darling, we are going to right a lot of wrongs. And we are going to wrong some rights. The first shall be last; the last shall be first; the meek shall do some earth-inheriting. But before we can radically reshape the world, we need to shop.

Peeing is like a good book in that it is very, very hard to stop once you start.

I stand in this parking lot, realizing that I’ve never been this far from home, and here is this girl I love and cannot follow. I hope this is the hero’s errand, because not following her is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

Poetry is just so emo,' he said. 'Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul.

Dude, I don’t want to talk about Lacey’s prom shoes. And I’ll tell you why: I have this thing that makes me really uninterested in prom shoes. It’s called a pen!$.

4 Snowflakes

Movie Tie-in Edition Book Cover of Paper Towns

Paper Towns Movie Trailer
Paper Towns Movie Release Date: Friday July 24, 2015

Be sure to let me know if you plan to see this movie! :)

Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Published December 28, 2006

Publisher: Speak

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.


After. Nothing is ever the same.

My Thoughts

(Originally Read March 2010)

Looking for Alaska was the book that made me an instant fan of John Green. This book was simply brilliant! My only regret was that I left it pending on my bookshelf for far too long, and for those of you that have read and loved this book, yes I agree… truly criminal on my part. Green’s novel had me laughing out loud, rooting for the characters, cringing with chagrin, and ultimately holding my breath in angst. It was one of those books that take you on a rewarding emotional rollercoaster.

Miles Halter, otherwise known as Pudge for his lanky physique (sarcasm duly noted), was the perfect narrator for this story. His self-deprecating humor had me engaged throughout the entire novel and at times I felt myself responding to his mental dialog. For his junior year in High School, he decides to transfer to a boarding school at Culver Creek in his quest for a “Great Perhaps.” There, he becomes friends with the Colonel, Takumi, Lara and the girl he ultimately falls in love with, self-named Alaska. Alaska catapults Miles into his “Great Perhaps” through a series of sincere and revealing moments, good times, and eventually an event that will have him asking himself how he can find his way out of the labyrinth he’s embedded in. The second half of the book, known as ‘after,’ becomes an emotional journey of self revelation and a quest for the truth.

Green’s use of the chapter titles was brilliant to say the least. As I journeyed with Miles and laughed with him as he made new friends and experienced truly hilarious moments; the chapter titles never let me get too carried away, as they served as a constant reminder of impending doom. This book, for me, was reminiscent of John Knowles, A Separate Peace, and as with that book, Looking for Alaska will remain a story I keep in the back of my mind. Awesome read!

5 Snowflakes

Review & Give-away: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Publisher: Dutten Books

Publication Date: January 10, 2012

Order: Amazon / Barnes&Noble

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Book Quote: I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love, with you. ~AW

My Thoughts
I’ll be the first to admit, I have a very specific selection criteria when it comes to determining what type of books I’ll consider reading.  Most often, I always say yes please to YA Dystopic, Fantasy and Contemporary. I’ll NEVER say no to a YA Australian book. Yes, I declared that as a genre I believe in early 2011. But one criteria I tend to grapple with is male versus female authors.

At first glance, if I see a male author listed on the cover of a book my initial reaction is to put it back on the shelf. I really don’t have a solid reason why, I simply just gravitate to female authors especially in the YA genre. Oh and when I see that the male author is attempting a female character’s voice, I’m all sorts of skeptical. Like sirens blaring skeptical. Again, I don’t have a particular reason, it’s just a preference or a pre-conceived notion that it might not work with my taste.

These same considerations don’t hold true for female authors when it comes to writing male characters. I always have faith that the possibility of me liking it will be pretty good. I mean let’s consider a few of my favorite authors that have succeeded in winning me over with their male character voices. Here are just a few:

Gale Foreman – Adam in Where She Went

Melina Marchetta – Finnikin and Froi in the Lumatere Chronicles

Colleen Hoover – Will in Point of Retreat

Tabitha Suzuma – Lochan in Forbidden

Fiona Wood – Dan in Six Impossible Things

I know I’m missing a ton here… help me out. J

So imagine my surprise when I came across one of the few select male YA authors that has won a spot on my “Don’t Question Him, Just Read His Book and Forget He’s a Guy Shelf?” Yes, I have a shelf for that criteria because there are only a handful of male YA authors I’ll even attempt to consider… again all based on shallow biases. When I heard John Green’s novel The Fault in Our Stars was written in a female voice, I thought to myself… okay let’s see what we have here. And of course I fell in love with this book! Not just that, my first and only book tears so far for 2012 are dedicated to Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars.

This book was more than I ever expected going in. It wasn’t just about two teenagers who were both battling a fight against cancer. It was about living your life at the moment and understanding that no matter how much time we’re given, we should be thankful for the small infinity we have and for the chance if we’re lucky enough to find love and be able to give it back.

This story was beautiful, funny, heartbreaking and poignant. Gus and Hazel made me laugh, cry, laugh all over again, and cry some more. I knew well before the ending was near that when I was done, I’d be floored with some heavy emotion. As much as I felt prepared for the ending… I really wasn’t. Wow… I wanted this book to become a person so I can take it to Vegas and marry it. That would make more sense after you read The Fault in Our Stars...trust me. ;)

By far, my favorite by John Green written in a perspective that had me bowing to his genius and endless talent.

 Favorite Quote:

“You know how I know you’re a fighter? You called a ten a nine...” ~sobs~

5 Snowflakes

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Book Give-away!

So if you haven’t tried a book by John Green and you have the same reading quirks I do, I’m offering you a no risk opportunity. I’m giving away a signed copy of this beautiful piece of magic to one lucky winner. All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter thingy and post a comment on either (1) a favorite male character of yours written by a female author, (2) your reading quirks or (3) male YA authors you recommend. Just one comment will do. =)

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