Review: Let It Snow - John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle

Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, published by Penguin on 5th September 2013

Goodreads synopsis:
An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train and sets off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives. Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House (and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barista.

Review:
I decided to wait to read this one until December so that I could enjoy the Christmas themed stories in the run up to the big day.  You definitely want to start this title when you're curled up by the fire with a big mug of hot chocolate in your hands.  'Let It Snow' consists of three festive and inter-connected stories by bestselling YA authors John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle.  Each is extremely unique and quite quirky.  Personally I'm not a big fan of short stories as I often find that I'm not given enough time to become properly acquainted with the characters or that I'm just getting into a story when it's suddenly all over.  I did find this was the case with this collection although I still enjoyed it.   

The first story is called 'The Jubilee Express' by Maureen Johnson.  It's about a girl called Jubilee who is on her way to stay with her grandparents for Christmas when her train gets stuck in the snow in the small town of Graceland.  Here she meets an interesting cast of characters who also feature later on in the book.  This is followed by John Green's 'A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle' which features Tobin and his friends trying to get to the Waffle House after finding out that fourteen cheerleaders have descended there after being stranded in town.  The final story called 'The Patron Saint of Pigs' by Lauren Myracle was actually my least favourite.  It centres around Addie who has promised to collect her friends teacup piglet but can't seem to focus after having split up with her boyfriend Jeb.

Each story centres around the themes of love and friendship.  They feature romance and new beginnings, as well as what happens when friendship turns into something more.  There's the promise of forgiveness and starting over, with all the characters' stories concluding in quite unexpected ways.  It's not the best Christmas book I've ever read but I still enjoyed this wintery, festive collection which would make a great present for the holiday season.
 

Review: Paper Towns - John Green

Goodreads synopsis:
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

Review:
To start off, this is the first book by John Green that I've read, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  On finishing it last night, I have to say that I've got really mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, I did enjoy parts of it but on the other, there were a lot of things about it that made it far from my perfect book.  John Green writes extemely intelligently from the viewpoint of Q, who has spent almost all of his teenage life in love with his next-door-neighbour Margo.  After spending one perfect night of adventure together, Margo disappears and Q takes it upon himself to be the one to try and track her down.

I think my biggest problem with 'Paper Towns' was that I didn't care enough about what happened to the characters.  I found Margo quite a dislikeable figure and although Q was sweet and funny, I didn't understand why he felt like he had to abandon everything in his single-minded quest to locate her.  I really just wanted to shout at him to leave her to it!  Part of the reason why I probably didn't love it, is the fact that it had a male narrator.  It reminded me a little bit of 'Zoology' by Ben Dolnick.  Guy has huge crush on girl, girl doesn't return his feelings, guy spends entire book trying to fix things for her.  It's been done before.  I would have thought it would have been more interesting to write a book from the perspective of a boy, perhaps dealing with a girl who has a huge crush on him that he doesn't return.  How would be cope if her feelings for him were getting out of control?  What impact would that have on his life?      

I thought that the cleverest thing about the book was the way in which John Green linked a lot of  the characters feelings and emotions with literature and poetry (Whitman, Plath, Melville), helping to enhance our understanding of them.

I don't think that this is the sort of book that would appeal to everyone.  However, saying all that, I would still give John Green another chance to redeem himself.  'Looking For Alaska' is supposed to be very good, so I might try that one next.