Midnight Adventures
Jack Hazel
Paper Towns
By John Green
How would you react if you were told to come with your neighbor on an adventure in the middle of the night without any warning beforehand?
In the first half of Paper Towns by John Green, Quentin, the protagonist who is also referred to as Q, is put through this situation. The reader is introduced to Q at the beginning of the novel during a flashback, in which he was still a little kid, with his neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, which portrays them as very close friends. Then the reader is introduced to Q’s best friends at his high school, Ben and Radar. Once Q gets home from school and goes to sleep that night he gets woken up in the middle of the night by Margo who he hasn’t spoken to in years. She wakes him up telling him that she needs him to drive her out to run some errands and visit a bunch of different peoples’ houses. Q refuses at first but eventually gives in and takes her to all the houses she told him to go to where she got revenge on some people for wronging her and tried to give nice gestures to people she felt she needed to apologize to. After the adventurous night, Q goes to school the next day even though he’s clearly exhausted and sees that Margo isn’t in school the next day and she isn’t even home when school is over.
Based on my perspective, I believe that this novel was really interesting and thought-provoking, and I really enjoy reading it so far. Being able to connect with the protagonist, the author really going in depth into Q and Margo’s relationship, and the page-turning method of keeping almost everything a mystery has really contributed to my liking of the novel; this novel is probably one of my favorite mystery stories so far. The similarities between the protagonist and I have really contributed to my connection with him while reading the story. At the beginning of the novel, Q gives some insight to his drive to school with his mom: “As she drove, Mom was asking me about classes and finals and prom” (Green 11). This quote shows how the protagonist is just a boy in high school who may be older than me by a few years but I am still able to connect with him in many ways nevertheless. This really kept me interested while reading and I feel like for the book to be really interesting you have to be able to connect with the protagonist in some way which I did while reading this. I also enjoyed seeing how deeply the author portrayed Q and Margo’s relationship. While they were out late at night, Q thinks, “But her shoulder was against my arm, and the backs of our hands were touching, and although I was not looking at Margo, pressing myself against the glass felt almost like pressing myself against her” (Green 58). Even the smallest thoughts that go on in Q’s head are included in the novel in order to really show how their relationship is growing. This really interested me because it kept me wanting to know how far their relationship would go; I kept reading on in order to find out. I also really liked how this novel included so many mystery aspects in it. In the middle of the night when Margo goes to Q’s window, she says, “So like I said, I need a car. Also, I need you to drive it, because I have to do eleven things tonight, and at least five of them involve a getaway man” (Green 26). This late night plan of Margo’s remains a mystery for a little while before she reveals why she is asking Q to do this which is a really good way of keeping the readers' interest. This really kept me turning the page because I really wanted to know what happened next in situations like this.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves reading mystery novels but who is also around the age of any high school student, particularly a boy. This is because I feel that in order to really appreciate this novel and enjoy reading it you really have to connect with the protagonist, which is how I feel about basically every novel. You should also, obviously, be a fan of the mystery genre to enjoy this book.
Paper Towns
By John Green
How would you react if you were told to come with your neighbor on an adventure in the middle of the night without any warning beforehand?
In the first half of Paper Towns by John Green, Quentin, the protagonist who is also referred to as Q, is put through this situation. The reader is introduced to Q at the beginning of the novel during a flashback, in which he was still a little kid, with his neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, which portrays them as very close friends. Then the reader is introduced to Q’s best friends at his high school, Ben and Radar. Once Q gets home from school and goes to sleep that night he gets woken up in the middle of the night by Margo who he hasn’t spoken to in years. She wakes him up telling him that she needs him to drive her out to run some errands and visit a bunch of different peoples’ houses. Q refuses at first but eventually gives in and takes her to all the houses she told him to go to where she got revenge on some people for wronging her and tried to give nice gestures to people she felt she needed to apologize to. After the adventurous night, Q goes to school the next day even though he’s clearly exhausted and sees that Margo isn’t in school the next day and she isn’t even home when school is over.
Based on my perspective, I believe that this novel was really interesting and thought-provoking, and I really enjoy reading it so far. Being able to connect with the protagonist, the author really going in depth into Q and Margo’s relationship, and the page-turning method of keeping almost everything a mystery has really contributed to my liking of the novel; this novel is probably one of my favorite mystery stories so far. The similarities between the protagonist and I have really contributed to my connection with him while reading the story. At the beginning of the novel, Q gives some insight to his drive to school with his mom: “As she drove, Mom was asking me about classes and finals and prom” (Green 11). This quote shows how the protagonist is just a boy in high school who may be older than me by a few years but I am still able to connect with him in many ways nevertheless. This really kept me interested while reading and I feel like for the book to be really interesting you have to be able to connect with the protagonist in some way which I did while reading this. I also enjoyed seeing how deeply the author portrayed Q and Margo’s relationship. While they were out late at night, Q thinks, “But her shoulder was against my arm, and the backs of our hands were touching, and although I was not looking at Margo, pressing myself against the glass felt almost like pressing myself against her” (Green 58). Even the smallest thoughts that go on in Q’s head are included in the novel in order to really show how their relationship is growing. This really interested me because it kept me wanting to know how far their relationship would go; I kept reading on in order to find out. I also really liked how this novel included so many mystery aspects in it. In the middle of the night when Margo goes to Q’s window, she says, “So like I said, I need a car. Also, I need you to drive it, because I have to do eleven things tonight, and at least five of them involve a getaway man” (Green 26). This late night plan of Margo’s remains a mystery for a little while before she reveals why she is asking Q to do this which is a really good way of keeping the readers' interest. This really kept me turning the page because I really wanted to know what happened next in situations like this.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves reading mystery novels but who is also around the age of any high school student, particularly a boy. This is because I feel that in order to really appreciate this novel and enjoy reading it you really have to connect with the protagonist, which is how I feel about basically every novel. You should also, obviously, be a fan of the mystery genre to enjoy this book.
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