Book characters that reflect yourself – Quentin in ‘Paper Towns’

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Have you ever found a book character who helps you to realise something about yourself?

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Paper Towns by John Green is one of my favourite books I read last year. It is by no means perfect – its middle is a little slow and if you’re not a fan of Green’s continued use of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope in his novels it’s probably best to avoid this one. But it is well-written and thought-provoking.

What I liked best about this novel was the character of Quentin Jacobsen. Specifically, how real he is. He takes his friends and family for granted, thinks almost exclusively of his own wants and a lot of the time makes you want to shake him for being so selfish. But he’s also funny and intelligent and has a good heart.

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How to ruin a novel with your own expectations: The Virgin Suicides and me

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I’d wanted to read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides for a long time. Ever since I saw the cover, the word ‘suicide’ above a young girl lying on a patch of bright green grass, brown shoes, white tights and a pink dress conveying her youth and innocence, I was intrigued.

I’d heard it was really good, great, amazing and had seen book posters proclaiming it “bewitching” (Vogue) and even “one of the finest novels in many years – a Catcher in the Rye for our time” (Observer). And so it came to pass that instead of picking up a copy and turning to the blurb or searching for the synopsis on Wikipedia, I imagined what I thought the novel was about.

Thoughts On: The Hunger Games book trilogy

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I was very late in reading The Hunger Games series – three books and a film late – but I’m glad I finally did. Although I didn’t love the books, I did enjoy them – they’re easy to read, generally fast-paced and they showcase a dystopia that has enough similarities to our own world to be disquieting. I stayed up into the early hours of the morning, turning page after page, wanting to read just another paragraph, a page, a chapter before I went to sleep.

The best thing about the books is Collins’ ability to keep the action rolling with shocks and twists aplenty. In both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, the arena serves as a great tool to hike up the tension and to keep us constantly guessing as to how Katiss will survive. She faces a wide range of deadly threats including tracker jackers, muttations, giant waves and burning fog that keep the momentum of the books high and the nerves of the reader fraught. Without the arena, the pace of Mockingjay is much slower but I found this a welcome change. It meant that when Snow’s men raged war against the rebel resistance on the streets of the Capitol I wasn’t half-exhausted by previous fighting.