Paper Towns by John Green

Now, I am admittedly a huge John Green fan. The first book I read by him, An Abundance of Katherines, was a catalyst for me to devour the rest of what he had written. I quickly read Looking for Alaska and loved it and can go on and on and on and on...about the love I have for The Fault in our Stars (arguably in the top 10 contemporary pieces of literature I have ever read). So, on this fabled second snow day I thought what could be better than curling up with a John Green book? Well, a couple of things apparently.

Now, don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book. It wasn't a terrible way for me to spend the day, but I didn't love it. To me, honestly, it seemed too much like Looking for Alaska. There is a boy, and a girl, the boy is a nerd/geek, but in his own right, and the girl is this person that he has somehow idolized and then fantasized into a being that is so unrealistic that his realization of how wrong he could be could only become part of the plot. He even comes to this conclusion:

So, here is the information on it. The book's main characters are Quentin, who is referred to as Q for the majority of the novel, and Margo Roth Spiegelman, who disappears for the majority of the novel.

Q is your average teenager. Not in the over-stereotypical, media sensationalized sense. He does not party hard, does not sleep around, none of those things. He goes to school, hangs out with his friends, and likes a girl. He is nerd in the sense of not being popular, but is perfectly fine with is lot in life. Except for one thing. He has a...fixation...on Margo. Margo and Q were childhood friends since they grew up living next to each other. Even from childhood he had a fascination with her, and it never faded as they grew into their teens even though they grew apart. He always observed her from a far, but never tried to make things happy.

The concept of Margo is hard to put into words because we never really get to see her from a point of view other than Q's. Even when her friends are talking about her, he still filters it and refutes what he doesn't like, but then again, begins to accept and evolve his concept about her. So, yeah, hard to pin down, but that is supposed to be the nature of her character.

The story begins by sharing a memory from their childhood that would cement Margo in Q's mind as the girl he will always want. This draws the reader in immediately. The, Margo and Q team up for a good number of pages and we are drawn into this realistic night of their lives. If you didn't know they hadn't been hanging out, you would think them two very good friends. Then Margo disappears.

This is the part of the book I found to be lacking. It starts with her disappearance being nothing out of the ordinary. No one is surprised and everyone thinks that she will be home soon, especially since she has done this kind of whimsical thing before. When she is gone longer, it becomes Q's obsession to find her. For good reason, as he does fear the worse. But, when I say obsession, I mean obsession. It got old to read about his dead ends and failed attempts to decipher the clues left for him, and that is where I started to wane on how much I would enjoy this book.

I fear to talk to much more about it for sake of giving out spoilers. But, as I said earlier, I didn't hate this. In fact, I did love the way he incorporated the clues. I really liked that. To me it speaks to the point where we all want to think we matter enough that if we leave hints people will follow them. We all want to believe that our absences go noticed, and that in some sense day to day life is not the same if we are not there. I, as always, also love the way that Green writes his characters. None of them seem far fetched, and it wasn't hard to relate to anyone of them. Even to me, someone who has always known exactly what she wants to do and exactly how to go about doing it, could relate to Margo and her ideas of paper towns and paper people.

The story in the novel itself is good. The characters are developed well, or not - but that is for plot purposes,  and everything seems very realistic. I just didn't get into this as much because I kept seeing too many similarities between this and Looking for Alaska. 

You walk away from this novel with some thought provoking quotes and it does make you wonder about the relationships we value in life, but I didn't dwell on these thoughts long and hard. So, was it good? Yes. Was it great? No. I would recommend it to anyone I know hasn't read Looking for Alaska, and would want to pick their non-predisposed brains on it.

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

So, before I begin, I would like to say that under normal circumstances I do not like werewolves. I do not entirely know why, it may have to do with the fact that I find half human, half beast creatures whose mannerisms are controlled by a lunar cycle to be a little anti-female in nature, but I have never been particularly fond of any type of werewolf lore. However, I love this book.

This book was first forcefully thrust upon me by my best friend Katherine. I was hesitant to read it because it was right around the time the first Twilight movie came out and I was afraid this was some appeal to the adult women who inexplicably found themselves drawn in to Team Jacob and wanted a more adult series to become a part of. I have never been so grateful to have been wrong. I absolutely loved this book and immediately began making my way through Armstrong's  Women of the Otherworld series and loving every one of the companion novels. I decided to re-read Bitten in celebration of the fact that it as been made into a TV series that will air on SyFy here in the States (Armstrong is a Canadian author) on January 13. I am really glad I did because I had forgotten how much I love her writing style.

 Bitten centers on Elena Michaels. Elena is unique in this story because she is the only female werewolf in the world. In this modern day, realistic fantasy, Elena has left her life with the Pack, who are the dominating group of male werewolves in the United States, to lead a wolf free lifestyle in Toronto and pursue as normal a life as possible. She didn't choose to become a werewolf and she was not born into it. Her friend, fiancé, and love of her life, Clayton Danvers, bit her (hence the title), and she became the first female to survive the change. Though some would think that would be awesome, Elena did not and wants nothing to do with a life she considers brutal, savage, and a far cry from the life she dreamt of having when she grew up. So, she leaves the Pack in Central New York to pursue her "normal" life in Toronto, vowing to keep the wolf side of her separate.

If only things actually worked the way we planned them. Jeremy, the Alpha, calls Elena and tells her she needs to come home. There is an emergency and the lives of all the members of the Pack are in danger. Elena has to decide whether or not she stays in Toronto, struggling to hide who she really is and live the life she considers ideal or if she should return to the Pack and live the life fate has dealt her. Along the way she will has to face some hard truths, a serial killer, and a bunch of savage mutts that view her as a tool of vengeance.

This book is absolutely phenomenal for any fantasy fans. Though it has its roots in fantasy, it is set in a realistic setting. No one has super amazing powers or any of that nonsense, so the fact that they are werewolves and have adapted to modern day society and living standards seems completely plausible. They don't change with the moon cycle, they actually change more frequently and sort of at their will (there body will eventually force the change if they try to put it off too long). The struggle Elena faces seems completely relatable as well. It makes it easy to get lost in this world and not want to put the book down. Plus, Elena Michaels is kick ass. She is such a strong female protagonist. Even when she is whining, she is doing it in a way that isn't annoying. Her werewolf side gives her a side that allows her to be both cynical and witty in the face of a dangerous situation and still be bad ass. It is pretty fantastic. I love that not only is she strong, she has a very realistic softer side as well. She still gets butterflies in her stomach when super hot Clayton puts the moves on her, but doesn't hesitate to break the wrist of the arrogant mutt who is trying to intimidate her. Love it!

I love Armstrong's writing style. More than once when I have had a bad streak of books that I just thought were blah, I have simply been like "I need some Kelley Armstrong!". She writes with a style that just draws you in and completely envelopes you as you read. It flows so well, there are no plot gaps or crazy, unexplainable, ill written plot twists. She develops all her characters so well that I feel like they are people I know. Then, with the companion novels in the rest of the Women of the Otherworld series, you see them develop further as they all interact with each other. It is fantastic.

I highly recommend this and all of Kelley Armstrong's novels for anyone. I am really excited to check out the tv series they created and hope it does the story justice.