Paper Towns by John Green- Review

I feel like I'm endlessly reviewing John Green at the moment, and I wasn't planning on reviewing Paper Towns. But... then I spoke to a friend and was explaining what it's about and I remembered just how much I loved it and realised that I wanted to share my thoughts about it.

So, here you are!

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.

-From Goodreads

This is probably joint second (with Will Grayson, Will Grayson) of my favourite John Green books, which is saying something because I've loved every book I've read by him. I think that I enjoyed Paper Towns so much because it has a sense of adventure to it. At the start of the book, Q is just a seemingly normal teenager who is about to graduate, but towards the end he has changed so much. He becomes braver and knows now what matters to him more than other things. 

I loved Q because he was selfless and did a lot for Margo, when he could have just as easily left her. He was so fun to read about and from his point of view everything was really interesting. My favourite part was towards the end. It made me want to be spontaneous and go on a road trip with good friends, and the way John Green wrote it made it so funny at times. I felt like the road trip showed so many sides to all of the characters involved, which was really great to read because the characters became even more life-like.

When I read this book it made me feel really thoughtful and towards the end it was quite happy. I liked that the book made me think about things, and Margo in particular said a lot of things that I agreed with. I just really love it when I find a quote from a book which really makes me think about things, and this quote was definitely one of my favourites:

I think there is so much meaning to it and I really wanted to share it. 

As of yet, I haven't read a John Green book which I haven't enjoyed, and this book is not an exception. I will give this 5/5 stars because I really, really loved it and I think any YA contemporary fans should give this book a try.

Rating System

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Now You See Me by Emma Haughton- Review

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review- this does not affect my views in any way.

Three years ago, thirteen-year-old Danny Geller vanished without trace.

His family and friends are still hanging on to every last shred of hope. Not knowing if he's alive or dead, their world is shrouded in shadows, secrets and suspicions.

This is the story of what happens when hope comes back to haunt you. When your desperation is used against you. When you search for the truth – but are too scared to accept the reality staring you in the face...

-From Goodreads

Wow! This book was amazing! I finished this book in one day, which is evidence enough of how much I enjoyed it. The plot was unlike anything I've ever read before. I think that the way that we don't know what happened to Danny is a massive incentive to carry on reading. Not only that though- there is a subplot of what's happened between Hannah's dad and Danny's parents, which I also spent a lot of time wanting to know more about.

The writing of this book was brilliant. It didn't give things away before they were supposed to be, as some books I've read have done. I think this is really important otherwise a story can become boring if you know what's going to happen next. I thought that the characters had a lot of personality and I really liked Hannah, who the story was from the perspective of. Also, I loved Danny's mum because I think that she was really strong and I think that she was a lot like any mum, so this made the story even more sad to read because she was relatable.

As for the plot twist, I thought it was brilliant! In a way there were two plot twists which is even better! Sometimes a twist can be a bit far fetched or annoying, but this one was so good! I really think that it made the book even more better and exciting.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA- this book is actually a UKYA novel (!)- with a riveting plot and an almost thriller type of genre. I would really love to read more of these types of books, so let me know if there's anything out there- I haven't really read anything like this before! I have to give this book 5/5 hearts because I enjoyed it so, so much.

Rating System

Unaccompanied Minor by Hollis Gillespie

I received this book from Merit Press Books (thank you!) and this doesn't affect my review in any way.

Fourteen-year-old April May Manning spent her life on airplanes with her flight attendant parents. When her father dies in a crash, April's mom marries a pilot who turns out to be an abusive jerk, and gets Mom confined to a psychiatric hospital. So April takes off, literally, living on airplanes, using her mother's flight benefits, relying on the flight crews who know she's been shuttling between divorcing parents for a year. Then, there's a hijacking, but why is April's "dad" on board? April flees to the cargo hold with another unaccompanied minor she's met before, and they fight to thwart the hijackers, faking a fire, making weapons from things they find in luggage. At last, locked in the cockpit with a wounded police officer, the boy, and his service dog, April tries to remember everything her parents said to do in a crisis above the clouds. But she knows it won't be enough.

-From Goodreads

Firstly, the plot of this book is so original! I haven't read anything even remotely like this before, and so this made it automatically more enjoyable. Almost all of the story took place on a plane or in an airport, so as someone who hasn't ever been on a plane, this was great! I never realised how much a setting can change the feel of a book, and this made it fast paced and exciting.

April was a great character with a lot of personality. This book showed April, the unaccompanied minor, who would otherwise be overlooked, to be someone worth listening to. I liked the way that Gillespie showed the stereo-typically weaker people, like young (April) and old (Flo) to be strong and brave. I really like it when writers do things like that.

Weirdly, I learnt a lot from this book too because I've never even been inside an airport, so that was so interesting to read! Although I liked the setting and characters, I didn't find that the plot captured my attention. While I enjoyed what I was reading, I didn't feel like I just had  to carry on reading. After a while I got a bit side tracked with my reading. I think that this might be because this isn't something I'm used to reading, and maybe not my cup of tea. 

I think that a lot of people, however, would enjoy this book a lot. There are some great characters and an unusual plot, which is great.

Rating System

Buy the book

March Roundup!

Sorry for the last post, I lost my notebook with my list of books that I've read in and all my planning! I've found it now though, finally.

This month has definitely been a lot better than February! Still not my best month, but an improvement. Recently, I've been having a lot of school work, but I've been trying to post frequently and this has worked better this month than last.

Reading wise, March has been quite good, but there's still room for improvement! I've read 7 books this month, which are:

Out of these books, I reviewed Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Poor Little Dead Girls, and The Maze Runner.

I found a meme this month which I really love and it's called Quote Me Thursday. I did two posts of this meme, and enjoyed them a lot. Here's the first one, and here's the second. 

This month, I wrote about How To Read- where I gave tips on how to encourage friends or family to start reading, and I also did a post called Books into Films, which talks about... you guessed it... books being made into films!

I haven't been tweeting a lot lately, but will be for sure in April, and hopefully will be doing a lot of reading a blog posts!

Quote Me Thursday #2

I enjoyed doing this post a lot last week, so I thought I'd do it again!

I'm taking part in the weekly meme, hosted by Daily Mayo. This meme is all about sharing a favourite quote, passage from a book or any other quote related post. 

This week, the quote I chose was from The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald, and it goes like this:



There are so many reasons why I love this quote- one being that it is just written so beautifully and if I had to describe Summer in one sentence, it would be this quote. It sums up everything that is great about Summer time and why we look forward to it. I feel like I can relate to this a lot because I'm so excited for the summer, and doing things that you can't do otherwise, like going out all day and meeting new people and having a really great time. I think that there's a lot of truth in this quote too, because life pretty much does start again with Summer- there's a new sense of optimism that is given to us when the sun comes out and opportunities that we don't usually get. Personally, I am so happy when the weather is nice, and there's so much more to do and with this comes a lot of happiness, which I think Fitzgerald shows so well in this quote.

The Great Gatsby is a great book with so many brilliant lines in its limited number of pages. I want to re-read it soon and watch the film too!

P.S. I was going to write my Monthly Roundup, but lost my notebook with my lists of books in- it should be up tomorrow though!