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19barsav wrote:

mortalinstruments wrote:Honestly, I was like wtf. He just found her and she was like: "OH Pudge! WEIRD SEEING YOU HERE." Then he is just confused because she is so chill about just wanting to up and leave her life.

Ikr! It was ANNOYING.

I was so frustrated with it. We go on this journey and feel like it is building up to something big and special, but was let down. It didn't seem to fit to the "essence" of Green if that makes sense.

Right after finishing the book, I was aghast, thinking, "Wait, WHAT just happened? The book ended, just like that?!" Yep, I'm serious. But thinking back on it, I appreciate the way John managed to wrap up the story, leaving out the cliché one would expect in such a book - the cliché being, of course, that Margo and Q end up together. There was just that right blend of heartbreak at the end, for Q, and, as I felt, even for Margo. I am impressed that Q was able to conquer his feelings for Margo enough to respect her wish, and let her be.
Regardless of what happened in the book, though, I will forever ship Margo and Q <3

(I copied this from the other topic in Paper Towns, called "The Ending! (spoilers, obviously). I wrote this myself though, on that topic as well.)

I was like WHAT!? But I appreciate Green not going for the classic happy ending. Its one of the things I like about him

I liked how it was realistic, but this is a book, I didn't ask for realistic.

It took some time to get over it but looking back I think the ending was quite good, albeit not the best I've read. However I recently saw the movie too and even though it basically was the same ending, I didn't like it as much on film

I agree that the ending was unexpected, but I also think that it was more of a realistic thing for Margo's character to do. She didn't like the falsity of her home to begin with, and was then betrayed by one of her best friends and boyfriend. To me, leaving her home right before graduation to "find herself" seemed very Margo-like. However, I feel like she may have kept in contact with Q after he went back home, so I didn't mind the fact that they didn't end up together at the end of the book.

I wanted to read this story because fault in our stars completely wrecked me and I thought it would be just as good. I grew to hate his love interest. The entire adventure was fun. Then the end was like dress that fit at the store and when you got home it turned into a circus tent.

There were some things I liked and didn't like about the ending. I liked how Quentin finally got to see the real Margo or at least got to see that she wasn't what anyone really expected and so wasn't this impossibly perfect fantasy creature he thought her to be. At the same time I appreciated and almost hated that it had such an open ending. I know not all endings are happy (those are usually the books I go for) but the whole quest Quentin, Radar, Ben, and Lacey took to get Margo back ended with not much reward and with Margo being kind of rude to most of them.

When I finished reading, I did feel like what was the point, that the road trip was a complete waste of time and all that built up suspense concluded in an anticlimax, I felt really letdown. But on reflection I think it was the best possible ending, I wasn't disappointed with the typical boy rescues girl from herself senario, I wasn't depressed and traumatised by an unhappy ending or left with the frustration of a cliffhanger. The point was the journey, the characters learning about themselves and by extension the realisation that you cannot truly understand other people, you can try to see things from their point of view but it will always be tainted by your own views and your opinion of the person in question.

Looking back, yes I probably was disappointed with the ending when I read it. But now that I think about it, it was a very bold thing for Green to do. He challenged convention and surprised his readers and given his writing style I probably would have been disappointed if he had followed convention.

At first I didn't like the ending. I liked it after thinking about it a lot. It is a lot more realistic than other books. The person always gets the person of their dreams in books and they definitely don't in real life. It made me realize you don't have to get the guy or girl and you can still be happy.

I love this ending. As much as it disappoints me in the moment, because I always root for a happy ending, but when a book surprises me with something I didn't see coming, that's when I am impressed.

I personally liked the reality check of a guy not getting a girl despite his efforts regardless of how heroic or "right" his actions were. Paper Towns also ends with Quentin happy and he doesn't regret his prior experiences trying to find Margo. John Green has woven in the previous reality check with a more enjoyable topic of how experiences define and shape people. And I am willing to bet the events in the book seriously shaped Quentin.

As much as the ending of the book bothered me because I felt it should have gone differently, happier, maybe a little more hopeful, I realize how realistic it is. I think John Green did a good job at going beyond what he though readers would "want" and what actually would happen. Margo is such a free-spirit in the book and helped Q become more comfortable with who he is as a person as well as more willing to take risks.

Every now and then I actually like an ending that makes me somewhat sad. That sounds so strange to actually say, but it every story ended with a good outcome, we would all just predict the endings.