I recorded my 3rd episode of Walks & Talks where I give an update on my writing and talk about imposter syndrome.
Walks & Talks ep 3 || imposter syndrome and writing updates
Tag: teen
What is Entertainment? Part 1
Review: Paper Towns
3/5
Originally 2 stars until the last chapter.
This is my 2nd John Green book and until the final chapter I was worried it might be my last. I didn’t hate the book but for a book sorta famous for a road trip and the agency of one of its main characters there really wasn’t much movement.
While the main plot was about the physical quest of finding Margo, I really enjoyed the actual journey of finding who she was as a person. This wasn’t just a lesson for Q to learn but all his friends (Ben literally talking about how he got to re-fall for Lacey once he started dating her and finding out how real she is).
Q was probably my least favorite character “you keep expecting people not to be themselves.” Though the book did illustrate the journey of how he saw Margo I felt Q as a character did not change much else, which is fine, it’s just if I didn’t like him much in the beginning I wasn’t surprised not to like him much in the end.
I preferred the movie Radar to the book one. In the movie he was a real person. In the book he seemed to exist to only be an encyclopedia.
Margo’s lecture of Q at the end of the book was my favorite scene by far because it was just the culmination of everything the book was trying to tell us into an actual conversation. It wasn’t forced at all it was just the perfect dialogue and ultimately the final chapter of this book was really amazing (hence the extra star).
Review: Turtles All the Way Down
3.5/5
When I started the book I expected a cute romance mystery. I’ve never read a John Green book but I knew what he was famous for so I expected his reputation.
What I got was a novel less about plot, or even character development, and more about the internal survival of a teenage girl struggling with OCD.
At times the writing in this book was beautiful and at times not so much. One consistency was Green’s ability to weave a clever one liner into his work, even if the story itself was dragging on a little.
I thought the writing about Aza, from her point of view, was incredibly well done, but as a character I was not that intrigued with her story (and I honestly felt bad about my apathy. I stopped reading and felt bad that while I was reading I felt nothing.)
It wasn’t just her though. No character really developed or changed. They were more already a final product and we spent the rest of the novel peeling away their layers.
Though many reviewers loathe daisy she was my favorite. She was a good friend who suffered from external conflicts and complemented Aza’s internal struggles.
Michael and Noah both existed as singular feelings, the former existing solely as an artist and the latter as the embodiment of grief.
Davis flirted with his passion for Astronomy and space but in comparison to Daisy’s bold personality (and loving of similar topics) he just felt pale at times.
I don’t know. I liked a lot about this book but the plot didn’t just change, it disappeared entirely then rocketed back into the book at the very end.
While I thought this book was very well written it just didn’t last with me. Here I am minutes after finishing it and all I can summon (at most) is a Larry David “Pretty, Pretty, Pretty good”
I will say the style of writing did resonate with me and I will read another book (or more) by Green. It was also well paced, so it did offer that gratification of being fast enough to finish in a day.
R.K. Gold 