Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin has loved Margo Roth Spiegelman since childhood. Even when she completely ditches him for the popular crowd, he can't seem to shake this feeling. But Q is a smart, reserved young man, while Margo runs their high school and is a total badass. It's obvious the two aren't meant for each other.  Until one day, Margo appears at Q's window late at night and invites him on a trip of justice. She wants to fix and ruin a couple things (or people) through brilliantly thought-out pranks.  Q agrees and quickly begins to realize that the Margo everyone, including himself, sees is not the real Margo. Margo might not be this beautiful, untamable creature. Maybe she's lonely and depressed and has no clue about any of her life.  After this outrageous and pivotal night is over, Q can't wait to once again be a part of Margo's life.  But the next day Margo is gone, and Q is sure she's left clues as to how to find her.  With his best friend Radar in tow, Q begins his quest to recover where Margo is hiding, and who she really is.  Is she the wild, gorgeous, fantastical leader, or the sad, scared, lost little girl?  And will Q find her in time for her to still be alive?

Let me get this out of the way now: John Green is a wonderfully talented author.  I whizzed through "Paper Towns" being so empathetic to Q and thoroughly intrigued by Margo.  The whole idea of who we see when we look at people, and who they are behind the mask is portrayed beautifully by Q's inability to let go of his childhood image of Margo and Margo's desperation for people to both see and not see her.  After finishing, I questioned my own way of assessing people through what they've said to me and their actions, and I wondered if any of that was real.  Who are the people around us? Who are they to their parents, their friends, their lovers? Are they the same person to everyone? If not, is that okay? Are we all liars?  These are the kinds of questions Green brings up throughout "Paper Towns."  But Green also looks at the selfishness of identity, and the struggle to satisfy our own sense of self. Is what we want ourselves to be more important than what others need us to be? Is there a middle ground? Green creates Q and Radar and Margo each with similar and different wants and needs and allows them to all intertwine and crash.  Readers of any gender (as far as I can tell, since Q is a boy and I am a girl) will be able to understand and sympathize with Q's frustration and obsession and desperation for finding Margo and discovering how important it is to find out who she actually is.

"Paper Towns" is the perfect novel for ages fourteen and up. Both the beginning trip between Q and Margo and the road trip with Q and Radar are incredibly engaging and have the perfect amount of hilarity, seriousness, and teenage crises. You won't be able to stop thinking about the book until you finish it.  All the questions running through Q's brain will run through yours, too, and you won't be able to help looking at your own world differently.  Green wrote a simply inspiring piece that every teenager should pick up.

"Paper Towns" by John Green has the Abigail T stamp of approval: this is legitimate young adult fiction.


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