read: 04.02.19 - 05.02.19

Summary

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

Review

So, I needed a fairly easy read. And this was a fun, and easy read. But I'm in two minds about how I felt about it. Let's start with some positives.

I thought this book was fun. The characters are vibrant and quirky, the plot mysterious without being too heavy at times, and in general I think the book was quite self-aware. For example, Q idolises Margo for a large portion of the book, making her into some kind of goddess in his eyes, and a really poignant part of the book for me was when he realised he needed to start seeing her as an ordinary girl. I think in some aspects John Green made a real effort to stray away from YA cliches, and the slightly unsatisfactory ending is testament to that. On the whole, I did enjoy reading it, but here's some things I've thought about since finishing the book.

1. John Green couldn't have been more cliche by trying purposefully to be 'edgy' and 'quirky'. Quentin was a thoroughly unlikable character in some many parts of the novel and had some odd saviour complex about Margo which become really obsessive but without really affecting his own character development. I get that through trying to find Margo he is finding out aspects of himself but he becomes almost creepily obsessed.

2. All the characters are stereotypes. Q is the stereotypical soft boy who is super emo who has fallen in love with the wild girl who he happens to be neighbours with. Margo is the 'baddass' whose only real character trait is being sarcastic and 'tumblr deep'. Ben is the laughable nerd, Radar is the token black guy, Lacy is the cheerleader who turns out to be actually nice. They all felt a little...flat.

3. God the clues! The clues were so annoying and so unrealistic! I mean come on!

4. It followed the same character arc as nearly every other John Green character. Quentin and Pudge from 'Looking for Alaska' are basically the same person in my eyes.

But it was a fun book and one that I got through quickly which was fun, so I'm not that mad at it.

rating: 7/10