Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Review:

As much as I've hated this question--and my inability to answer it--I have to say that PAPER TOWNS by John Green is, truthfully, my favorite book. Ever.

To start off, I need to say how absolutely hilarious and fantastic John Green's writing is; the writing itself (and I'm not even getting to how great the characters are yet) has the most personality of any book I've read. I swear, flip to any page in the whole book and you'll laugh out loud. And I mean, have everyone-in-the-room-turn-to-look-at-you-because-you're-laughing-out-loud laugh out loud. And this fact itself is so uniquely beautiful; many times when authors try to be funny, or characters try to be funny, the jokes fall flat. Humor is one thing you can definitely count on in this book.

If you're looking for romance, PAPER TOWNS has a little--just enough to satisfy us romantics, fill us girls' bellies with butterflies for poor Quentin-in-love, but not so much that it becomes the book's purpose; it's not a love story. It's about people--just people, plain and simple--and I think that makes it a more challenging read, gives it more drive, than a romance novel could have. It gets you're mind going; some of John Green's simplest statements took my breath away with their honesty and truth.

The book is similar to Kendare Blake's Sleepwalk Society in the nature of it's simplicity; it deals with the troubles of being a teenager and discovering yourself . . . the difficulty in being a truly decent person, and what it means to be a person at all, rather than someone else's paper doll.

And now, my favorite--the character development is stunning! Margo Roth Spiegelman, I think, is my new best friend. And so is Quentin. First of all, Margo has spunk and flare; whether or not it's an act doesn't really make all that much of a difference: that girl has personality, even if she herself denies it. Her trouble with knowing who she is, and her inability to separate that from what other people want her to be is easily relatable for virtually any teenager, and, after all, what is better than a relatable trait in a fantastically constructed character? Quentin is just as amazing--he's dorky and genius, funny and thoughtful. He is, truly, the best portrayal of a unique teenage boy in high school I've seen in YA for a while. His parents were hilarious; two therapists in one room with their son? Awesome! And, girls, don't let the fact that the book is told from Quentin's perspective discourage you; this book is, honestly, too fabulous to miss out on.

PAPER TOWNS, as a whole, was, all at once, hilarious and quirky, heartbreaking and thought-provoking, mischievous and creative. It was, honestly, an ingenious novel, woven beautifully and uniquely and told in the witty and honest voice of the American teenager. Truly amazing!

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