The thing about Margo Roth Spiegelman is that really all I could ever do was let her talk, and then when she stopped talking encourage her to go on, due to the facts that 1. I was incontestably in love with, and 2. She was absolutely unprecedented in every way, and 3. She never really asked any questions…
Quentin Jacobson has always loved Margo from afar. So when she climbs through his window to summon him on an all-night road trip of revenge he cannot help but follow. But the next morning, Q turns up at school and Margo doesn’t. She’s left clues to her disappearance, like a trail of breadcrumbs for Q to follow.
And everything leads to one unavoidable question: Who is the real Margo?
Omg.
(I might just leave it at just that…)
Only joking, let me just start properly with goodness, what a book.
I’ve only read two John Green books, Fault in Our Stars and this one, I really enjoyed FIOS because I got emotionally connected to the characters (when don’t I?!) so I was excited to start reading this one, Green just manages to capture hearts with his stories, I am in awe of him.
As you probably know by now, I am a firm believer in reading the book before watching the film (with some exceptions), I just feel you get more of an understanding of the characters when you read about them first. So I was on holiday in rainy, yet beautiful Scotland and decided to entertain myself in the long car rides with Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman.
For almost the whole book I was completely and utterly enthralled with the story, right through their epic night out, seeking revenge and right-ing all the wrongs that had recently happened to the two of them.
Margo was a mystery, through out the novel she is mostly being seen through Q’s eyes (obviously) but with that you only see her as the person he wants her to be.
Margo has a trait of running away from home – to get attention – and so she gets pleasure of planning something so epic, no matter what happens to her or people around her.
The last time Quentin spent lots of time with Margo was when they were kids, but that quickly stopped when they stumbled across a dead body leaning up a tree in their local park when they were eight. The next time he spent time with her was their epic night and then suddenly – after making plans in his head of how school would be now they were friends – she had disappeared.
After Margo leaves, Q becomes obsessed with finding her, thinking that it was his duty, he goes through months of mishaps and a hell of a lot of clues, then when we all lose hope, he finds her…
I found most of the book amazing, because of the classic John Green formula, – girl, boy, in love, something goes wrong to either the girl or boy, then there’s mostly a happy ending to enjoy. But this ending was disappointing. After this epic journey of love, Q and his friends turn up to the hidden ghost town where Margo had hidden herself, and she just seemed to be bitchy, very bitchy in fact. She was clearly not happy to be found and that just annoyed the hell out of me. I was routing for Q and Margo, I ‘shipped’ them and they didn’t work out, it was unfair.
That was my only qualm with this novel; the ending was flat, in my opinion. You may read it and think it’s a wonderful ending, why don’t you read it and let me know what you think?
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Lucy.
Elle Hache 