'Paper Towns'

Paper Towns
By John Green
Published: Oct. 16, 2008
Read: January 2014
Format: Kindle edition

My Rating: B

“I'm starting to realize that people lack good mirrors. It's so hard for anyone to show us how we look, and so hard for us to show anyone how we feel.”

Q is a high school senior hopelessly in love with his neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, who hasn't paid him any attention since they were 10. Until she shows up at his window one night and drags him on an epic adventure filled with pranking her friends and breaking into Sea World. Just when he's filled with hope that Margo might become more than just the popular girl who lives next door, she disappears. He and his friends (but mostly just him because he's kind of obsessive) set off to solve the clues she's left and find her before graduation.

The story took place in Orlando, which I enjoyed because I lived there for three years and I was able to picture exactly what was being described. It added a realness to me. I didn't particularly relate to any of the characters, but I liked them all the same. The answer to Margo's disappearance was definitely a surprise to me, and I didn't feel let down at the end. It was sort of anti-climactic in the sense that Margo herself was built up to be this epic character, and the ending wasn't very epic. But that made it more realistic, and it was kind of the point: People aren't always who we think they are. Sometimes we build them up to be so much more than they are, and then when we get to know them, it turns out they're just as ordinary as anyone else.

Despite the similarities to other John Green novels and what some critically call his "formula," I liked Paper Towns. It may not have been very realistic, but it's a YA fiction novel, so why should it be? I liked the ending and I enjoyed the book. It was a fun read and I'd recommend it.