The one thing about pretty much very John Green book ever written is you can rely on certain things...pretty much in the same way you can rely on the Earth to take (approximately) 356.25 days orbit around the Sun:
1. A Teenage Main Character who is a bit too whiny for their own good. Said character is often highly intelligent and more well-read than the average college graduate, but always lacks common sense (see 3)
2. An Unattainable Love Interest who is SO darn bizarre they don't even seem real, but, rather, like a mixed bag of the most weird and random personality quirks the author could dream up. They're more Caricature than character.
3. Drama, drama and...wait for it... MORE drama. And did I mention there's drama? Because there is. Lots of it. Said drama is always caused by the Love Interest and always, always derails the life of the Main Character. Because Main Character just can't leave things be (see 1).
4. The Classic Chick Lit Best Friend (or friends). Because every Hero/Heroine needs a Wingman (or Wingwoman) to feed into and encourage their obsession over the Unattainable Love Interest. And to provide (over-the-top) comic relief.
It doesn't matter if the above characters are male or female. This is the formula. It obviously works, because the books sell. And there was a time when we couldn't even keep them on the shelf (That time has pretty much passed. Magical Warrior Princesses seem to be what's in right now).
I recently re-read Green's Paper Towns (2008) and followed it up with the movie adaption. The story is typical faire: Good Kid Quinten, or "Q" to his friends, has been 100% obsessed with his neighbor, Margo, since the day she and her family moved next door. Margo is a free-spirited quirk fest whose reputation as a wild child precedes her (and she's actually done most of what the rumors say she's done). After years of ignoring Q, she suddenly shows up at his window and precedes to drag him on an all-night revenge mission of vandalism and destruction, cumulating with breaking into Sea World. And all this without getting caught or arrested. Because, you know, she's Margo. The next day, Margo has vanished. But she's left an elaborate series of near-impossible-to-crack clues as to her whereabouts. Clues that Q drops everything to solve, thus putting in jeopardy his perfect attendance record, the trust of his parents, and the relationship with his best friends... because said friends inevitably get dragged along for the ride. They eventually find Margo, but (spoiler) the story doesn't end like Q hopes.
The movie adaption pretty much followed the book. Except for the ending which, in my opinion, should have stuck closer to the original story. But the casting was decent (although I pictured Margo differently). And I was entertained enough to keep watching.
Overall, though. I didn't like Margo...in either the book or the movie. For all her crazy quirks, she didn't have much of a personality. And I didn't understand what Q (or anyone else, for that matter) saw in her. Maybe if she'd had some redeeming features, I could get behind such a character. Rather, she came across as a selfish brat who was just out to screw up everyones' lives in order to alleviate her own boredom.
Also, no one. And I mean NO ONE would have realistically been that bothered to find and decipher that cryptic and vague trail of clues.
But otherwise, we wouldn't have had a story.
I can see the appeal of Paper Towns to its intended audience. And it's a nice break from Warrior Princesses.
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