Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Paper Towns (2015) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019

As a teenager, you are always trying to discover who you truly are. You are constantly surrounded by images of what you are supposed to be and the cliques that define who you are and who you are not. What is normal? What is real? What is it about this time of our lives that makes us so susceptible to the pressures of adolescence and the need to stand out while also being accepted for who we are? In Paper Towns, Quinten (Nat Wolff), a very shy and quiet teenage boy is enthralled with his mysterious neighbor Margot (Cara Delavigne), whom he had become estranged with over the years.
He has his future laid out before him Graduation is on the horizon. He is headed to Duke University in the Fall where he will be a premed student before settling down and creating a family of his own. His plans are disrupted when Margot comes back into his life one night seeking his help to enact revenge on her friends. However, after this night of hijinks, she has gone missing which throws Quinten’s life into flux.
He skips school and begins an obscure scavenger hunt in order to locate Margot. He becomes obsessed with finding her and in the process discovers more about himself than he had ever planned. The film breaks from many of the tropes that we are accustomed to with teen films. This is by far, much more mature storytelling, offering even the ancillary characters some depth and a sense that they too have an identity.
The film, although is about Quinten and his seemingly love for Margot is much more than that. It is about the sense of reality that we have constructed. It forces us to question what is real and what is imagined. Who are we at the core? What matters to us when we are the only ones who are allowed to judge the circumstances and our actions? This is by far more than just a “Boy meets girl” tale. This is a film that makes its characters reflect on who they are and who we want to be seen and will leave audiences doing the same.

Kudos

Snow White - An Animated Book from The Story Mouse

Book and Education

(0 Ratings) Rate It

App

The story book application adults love as much as children! An intelligent, dramatic story, with...

The Wild Truth: The Secrets That Drove Chris McCandless into the Wild

Carine McCandless

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

The key missing piece of Jon Krakauer's multi million, multi territory bestseller and widely...

Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in Books

Jun 24, 2019

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry, Gender Studies

9.0

(29 Ratings)

Book Rating

This was really a wild ride. I think this book managed to get me out of a mini reading slump (yay!).

The book starts off with Simon's private email being read by some guy in his drama club. This may not seem like a huge deal, except Simon's secretly been emailing this guy who he's maybe in love with. But they don't know each other's real identity, and neither of them have come out yet.

So Simon has to help the guy - Martin - get with one of his best friends. Only she isn't interested (at all). At the same time, Simon is falling for Blue more and more with each email, and is becoming desperate to find him in real life. He starts to decode the clues in an attempt to figure out his identity - only for Blue to beat him to it.

Simon's also struggling with tons of friendship issues, a big play coming up, and his family (and the entire school, for that matter) finding out about him being gay. He doesn't want any of it to be a big deal. But it is.

He's a great character, portrayed to be a normal human being. His relationships all seem pretty realistic (though I'm sceptical about the situation with Blue. Would anyone really be that lucky?). I really felt for him throughout the novel, and I was so unbelievably pleased for him at the end. I'm so not used to such great, adorable endings.

My biggest issues are that sometimes the teen voice was being pushed a bit too hard - we don't always say "freaking" or whatever. And the scenarios seemed a little too far-fetched sometimes. (Seriously, has anyone ever experienced people dancing in the crowd at a school talent show?) But generally this was a good representation of life, and I really enjoyed reading it.

I very nearly marked this as a favourite, but decided on just 4.5 stars in the end. I loved the book, but there were a few minor details that put me off just a little bit. It is most definitely a fantastic book, though! I'd definitely recommend this book for the YA audience.