Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Okay, so I didn't actually finish this book, so maybe it's not entirely fair for me to review it? But I've talked to several people who did finish it and they all had the same complaint. We felt like John Green tells the same story over and over again, and by the third round, it was too stale.

Awkward, somewhat nondescript, not-sure-where-to-go-with-his-life teenage boy. Quirky, extroverted best friend. Mysterious, alluring, confident, wise girl. Alluring girl inexplicably takes an interest in awkward boy and they do some adventurous things outside their comfort zones. By the end the boy has discovered more of a personality, or at least some solid personal beliefs and musings.

I totally think this plot-line can work (and I purposefully trivialized it a bit in the above paragraph). It worked great in Looking for Alaska, which I think was wonderful and consider to be an absolute classic of the young-adult genre. An Abundance of Katherines varied from this plot-line the most, and it was a fun story, so I enjoyed it. But by the time I picked up Paper Towns, I was ready to see John Green do something else. I realize that the themes vary slightly in each book, but not enough to keep me from feeling let down. I know he and his brother have lots of youtube fangirls (and deservedly so, they do some pretty cool things) but if he wants to continue to receive the praise he's been getting over the past several years, I think he's going to have to prove that he's a more versatile writer.

(I had the same experience with Let it Snow. I made it through Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which was pretty enjoyable and obviously somewhat different-- but not very much.)