Paper Towns

by John Green

[thepunktheory]

Book vs. Movie:
As my regular readers will know, I was very fond of John Green's The Fault in our Stars and its adaptation. You can guess that I was super excited when found out Paper Town will also be turned into a movie. However, it took me a bit to finally get started with the book and then also check out the film.

Let me begin with the novel:
Well, well. Unfortunately I don't have too many positive things to say about it. Basically everything about the book annoyed me. Margo Roth Spiegelman is not special but an egoistic bitch who cares only about herself and never thinks about consequences. It only took me a few chapter to become totally fed up with her character.
Furthermore, her actions were - well - a bit extreme. I was very irritated that no matter what she did (breaking into a house, setting of the alarm, having the cops rush there, etc.) there never were any consequences. That made the book extremely unrealistic.
Another point that really really really annoyed me: Walt Whitman. When Margo disappears she leaves some clues behind, one of them being a copy of Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Throughout the book Quentin goes back to the poem Song of Myself. Not only once but several times. I reached a point where I just wanted to throw the book against the wall just when Whitman was mentioned.
And finally: the ending. I just hated it. It wasn't credible, it wasn't inspiring, I was simply glad I had reached the last page.

Now the movie:
I liked the cast, the actors really matched with what I imagined the characters would be like. It's nice to see some familiar faces from The Fault in our Stars, especially Ansel Elgort's cameo appearance was brilliant. Moreover, a bunch of the unrealistic stuff from the book was changed or left out. Therefore many events felt much more credible. And I really appreciated that they cut Whitman down to a minimum. They also changed up the ending and thus made Margo look far more sympathetic. She's far less of a bitch in the adaptation!
But unfortunately the movie wasn't anything special. Not really fascinating, the story not intriguing or unique. It's a typical teen flick.

To sum it up I have to state that neither book nor movie are particularly awesome but the film is far better. Basically everything about John Green's novel disappointed and annoyed me. However, as many bits were different in the adaptation I enjoyed it far more!