Date Started: January 6, 2009 Date Finished:January 12, 2009
Summary: Quentin Jacobsen is awaken during the middle of the night to go on a prank spree with his neighbor and crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman. A few days later, Margo goes missing and Q decides that he needs to find her through a trail of clues that she left behind.
Likes: John Green really knows how to capture the spirit of teenagers in all their wild and reckless abandon (I can say that now because I am no longer a teenager). He captures the spirit of what it's like to be a friend of a band geek and his minor details like the marching band playing "Pomp and Circumstance" at graduation and the little information about the band were to be appreciated, coming from a former high school band geek. The story itself was interesting and entertaining. My favorite part was the road trip to Algoe, New York (Don't listen to "The Neko Bus" while reading this section). It made me relive my days of high school, especially the highlights of my senior year. I think the whole appeal for the book, at least for me, was the whole feeling of nostalgia. Sure, my senior year sucked ass immensely due to the stupidity of a few people, but there were bright spots created by those people who I still consider friends to this day (TASU ftw!). I digress, this was a good book. The writing and the narrative voice were solid and enjoyable. Green has a way of developing all of his characters to their fullest potential which is a hard thing to accomplish. Every character was well rounded, like they could be real people that I'd be friends with. People I can see myself in band with, coming back from that road trip and me listening to them wishing that I could have gone. This time I was allowed to tag along and I enjoyed the trip. That is hard to accomplish as a writer and John Green does a pretty good job.
Dislikes: I'm not sure. I felt like parts of this book were dragging. Things like the party and a few other places (nothing really comes to mind). They were fun to read, but in the long run were a bit unnecessary. I don't think the book would have suffered if they were cut out, but something would have been missing if they had been cut out. It would have a neutral effect if they were taken out. The part about peeing in the bottles made me think of Dumb and Dumber. I almost expected a cop to come by and drink the stuff. It wasn't a bad thing, but just a little cliched.
Overall: This was John Green's strongest book, because I had a connection to the characters. However, it wasn't my favorite. My favorite will still be "Looking for Alaska" because that provoked the deepest sense of emotion for me. The writing is stronger in this one, I will admit. Green was able to pick up nuances of his characters better this time because it was his third time around with the publishing and the book writing and the editing. Green has a wonderful narrative voice and characterization. If he wrote a book about two people sitting in a room having a conversation, I would read it just because these two aspects of his writing make a seemingly "cliched" (I really hate to use that word) premise into his own creation and making it new again.
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