Paper Towns

A boy. A girl. An epic coming-of-age story accompanied with adventure.

John Green’s Paper Towns has all the parts of a novel that his teenage audience loves and devours. Humor. Mystery. Romance. It follows Quentin, a senior in high school who’s greatest miracle is living next door to Margo, the

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most popular girl in his school. When she goes missing, nothing will stop him from finding her, and the truth. This novel seamlessly blends a perplexing mystery with everyday problems that the average teen can relate to.

Quentin’s life has always been normal. He has two normal parents, a normal house, and two normal friends. However, his life is about to be turned upside down when his next door neighbor/crush sneaks into his bedroom in the middle of the night and leads him on an adventure throughout the town, pranking all of her enemies. Just when he thinks he might go from a nobody to a somebody at his school overnight, Margo disappears. However, Quentin soon discovers that she had left a trail of clues for him to find, and soon him and the rest of his friends are led from place to place on each lead. The answers always have double meanings and unclear directions, leading Quentin and the others to doubt their quest. And what the clues point to leads them to an even more disturbing possibility. What they find doesn’t quite match up to their expectations in a shocking ending.

John Green effortlessly weaves a story that has all the elements of a young adult novel. The characters must face the difficulties and confront the problems of high school and growing up that readers can recognize and connect with, while also adding a mystery that will intrigue them. He makes just another novel about growing up into a suspenseful action packed classic. He gives great detail about the characters, making them feel like a real person. Each has their own strengths, flaws, and history attributed to them, which makes them less perfect and more relatable. Each problem that they face or their interpretation of a clue gives the reader another detail about them and how they look at things. The book is also peppered with flashbacks that give us an inside look an a traumatizing event in both Quentin’s and Margo’s childhood that lets the reader get a peek into their personalities.

Green does an amazing job throughout the entire book, right up to the very end. The finale, the revealing, what the readers have been waiting for the whole book. It’s a disappointment. It feels like it was meant to shock you, to make it be unpredicting, but readers mostly feel like it was a bit overboard. Green makes you be able to feel the pain, excitement, and happiness that the characters are feeling, in fact, he might do too much of a good job. The ending is such a let down because you can feel Quentin’s pang of disappointment like it was your own. All in all, Paper Towns had great detail, an amazing plot, and in depth characters, but the ending felt like it was trying too hard to be different. I give it four and a half stars out of five.

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I was taking a shot in the dark when I picked this one up. I knew nothing about it, and I was honestly kind of hesitant considering I wasn’t a huge fan of Looking For Alaska. But Paper Town surprisingly hooked me.

Margo Roth Spiegelman- the mystery of the story- I said this on Twitter, but I’ll

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say it again. If she was real, and I knew her, I would most likely punch her in the face. I was all for her at first, when her and Quentin were joyriding around all night, but after her disappearance I just found myself constantly annoyed. Leaving breadcrumbs- even if it isn’t intentional- in your departure so people can worry and obsess and search for you? Not cool. But even though I ended up extremely disliking her, I wouldn’t want it any other way. She clashes well with the story, and with the characters, and in it’s own way .. it’s kind of perfect.

I’m walking on eggshells here, trying to find how to write about this book without giving anything away. This story unfolds slowly, clue by clue, and everything always ends up leading to something else. It’s tricky to explain, but wickedly fun to read- like you’re putting yourself in the book and joining the search for Margo with Quentin and company.

Overall, this book really kept me going and going. When Quentin, the main character, discovered a clue- I’d get excited for him. When that clue turned out to be a fluke- I’d be disappointed for him. It’s extremely enthralling to read, and I definitely recommend it. I’ve even heard it’s being made into a movie next year, which is pretty awesome. I can totally see it being adapted to the big screen.

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All his life, Quentin has been fascinated by his neighbor, the lovely Margo Roth Spiegelman. She's beautiful, confident, snarky, and everyone loves her. But how well does everyone really know her? When Margo disappears after taking Quentin on a whirlwind one-night road trip, she leaves clues

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behind. Quentin knows that she means for him to find her. But can he do it in time?

I think I've come to the realization that I like John Green himself more than I really like his books. I really enjoyed the funny parts of this book (and there were many). But really I found both Margo and Quentin to be pretty obnoxious, which may have been partly the point of the book. This will please Nerdfighters and if you get a chance to hear John Green speak, please do because he's awesome, but Paper Towns was not really my cup of tea.

Oh, the audio recording was great. Very good narrator able to pull off the funny bits. John Green reads the prologue and author's note.

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Quentin has always been in love with his neighbor Margo. In his final year of high school, when Margo dissapeares yet again, he becomes obsessed with finding her and in the process learns that he never really knew her, He and everyone else had their own ideal of her that she helped to manufacture,

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but none of it was real. Surprisingly, John Green's characters fall flat. I'd probably give this book more stars if I didn't have such high expectations. The only character that pops off the pages is Quentin's friend, Ben. I didn't really care about any of these people, and I was irritated with their constant non-problems. Quentin explores some important questions about identity and connecting with others, inspired by his obsessive reading of Leaves of Grass. These philosophical explorations are interesting, but it took some deep reading to realize that they are the intire point of this book. I would feel it more if the characters were more vivid and were people I'd actually want to connect with. I felt the book had a strong start, slow middle, and weak finish.

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I like that the action started right away (on page 5). I like that there were enough clues to keep the mystery moving forward. I like that there were enough other story lines to keep the mystery from getting boring. I like that the relationships seemed ‘real’ in the way they called each other

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on their crap, and it wasn’t all “la-di-da, let’s through everything else out the window, regardless of the consequences, cause it’s a book about a mystery, so that is all that is important.” With that said, I wasn’t a big fan of the ending. It was true to the story, and couldn’t have ended any other way (in my opinion), but somehow it felt unfinished. Like either there wasn’t quite enough, or maybe there was just a little too much. I know that is confusing if you haven’t read it, and I can’t tell any more without spoilers, but does anyone else who has read the book agree? I would be VERY interested in your thoughts.

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Quentin Jacobsen, in the odd layering of high school groups, is a wannabe band geek. Having grown up next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman, one of the girls who found cool much more easily, Q. seems completely prepared to take off with her on a nighttime adventure when she shows up at his window one

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night. After their night of shenanigans, Margo disappears, leaving clues that Q. is determined to figure out with the help of his friends. I found the parental response to her disappearance a little unnerving, but I suppose Green has to create parents like that in order for the story to have more inner growth themes for the main characters. I found myself thinking back to An Abundance of Katherines quite often, and I think I appreciate it more now that I've read Paper Towns.

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Green scores again...but, um next time he might need to mix it up a bit. If I look past my small crush and were being honest, all three of his books have the same frame, different drapes. He wins in the interesting and quirky detail dept but dude, time to expand. You're good enough and gosh darn

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it, people like you.

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This was one of the author's darker stories. Yes the author caught the true feelings of the teenage characters, sometimes to true. The story did make me stop and think how a majority of adults treat teenagers. As a parent I pray that I don't act like most of the parents in this story, but sadly

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there are times that I do act like them. I started to read this book for pleasure, but the subject was to serious for a pleasure read. The time it took to read this story was time well spent. I hope to try another one or two of this author's work yet this summer.

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I started reading young adult books last year but this is the first one I’ve read geared towards older teenagers and that isn’t a fantasy. It’s about the last three weeks of high school when Margo, a popular girl, disappears. Quentin, her next door neighbor who is secretly in love with her,

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believes she has left clues as to where she is and sets out to find her with the help of his friends.

The book dragged a bit in the middle and the characters occasionally seemed two-dimensional but for the most part I enjoyed it. It was well-written, I liked that one of the clues to Margo’s disappearance was Walt Whitman’s poem “A Song of Myself” (which meant that it was discussed in depth), and it brought back memories of making that transition from high school to the next stage of your life. At the end I felt that most of these kids would be okay but they’ve also started the process of learning some hard truths about life and other people.

I plan to try some of John Green’s other books and would recommend this one if you’re looking for an easy read.

Here’s a quote:

“Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much she became one.”

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I have to say, I love John Green. I think he's a hilarious and well-spoken writer. His books never fail to be fun and meaningful. The cast of Paper Towns is lively and feels like they would be the sorta friends you would want to have. I didn't particularly find the story all that interesting, as I

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found it a lot like his other books. They all feature some geeky guy trying to win over the vibrant, mysterious girl. Certainly not a bad book, but I hope his next one branches out more.

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This was my first John Green book, and I have to say it definitely won't be my last. I actually was familiar with John through his Brotherhood 2.0 project, but I didn't realize it until reading the author blurb at the back of Paper Towns. The project was interesting, but I would totally recommend

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checking out his blog, which is full of wonderfulness like his "feud" with Maureen Johnson and a discussion of whether or not Margo Roth Spiegelman is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

But back to the novel. If you have been anywhere near a bookblog in the past few months, chances are you've heard of Paper Towns. You've probably read rave reviews, telling you how great it is. They're all true! This book is fantastic. From the synopsis and all the other reviews I'd read, I expected it to be similar to As Simple As Snow (which I also loved), and it is, a little. But it's also very, very different. One of my favorite things about Paper Towns is the relationship between Q and his best friends, Radar and Ben. Margo's an important part of the story, sure, but to me the relationship between these three guys is what makes the book great.

First up, Q. I think this passage helps describe him:

Both my parents are therapists, which means that I am really goddamned well adjusted. So when I woke up [after finding a dead body with Margo], I had a long conversation with my mom about the cycle of life, and how death is a part of life, but not a part of life I needed to be particularly concerned with at the age of nine, and I felt better. Honestly, I never worried about it much. Which is saying something, because I can do some worrying.

Q is neurotic. It's nice when Margo comes along to help break him out of his shell and get him to actually take some risks (hence, the MPDG comparisons). Q's two best friends are Radar (nicknamed for the M*A*S*H character he resembled pre-puberty) and Ben (who is slightly obnoxious, but very awesome). Radar is obsessed with Omnictionary, which is a non-copyrighted version of Wikipedia, and spends his free time editing it. Also, his parents have the world's largest collection of Black Santas. Like Q, that made me smile every time it was mentioned. Ben is obsessed with "honeybunnies" and spends his free time trying to get laid. He referred to girls as "honeybunnies" enough times in the first 20 pages that I really wanted to slap him. Mercifully, Q felt the same way:

I'd tried telling Ben that "honeybunny" sounded more sexist and lame than retro-cool, but he refused to abandon the practice. He called his own mother a honneybunny. There was no fixing him.

After that, it didn't bother me as much. Besides, Ben quickly became one of my favorite characters. Q and Radar are the straight men to his zany comic sidekick.

Ben playing video games:

"Come here you little bastard," Ben said, the controller twisting in his hand. "Daddy's gonna put you on a sailboat across the River Styx."
"Did you just use Greek mythology to trash talk?" I asked.
Radar laughed. Ben started pummeling buttons, shouting, "Eat it, goblin! Eat it like Zeus ate Metis!"

Ben drunk at a party thrown by one of his new girlfriend's "friends":

So Lacey and I followed Ben upstairs, where he opened the door to Becca's room and said, "Your party kicks so much ass! Even though you suck so much! It's like instead of blood, your heart pumps liquid suck! But thanks for the beer!" Becca was alone, lying on top of her covers, staring at the ceiling. She didn't even glance at him. She just mumbled, "Oh, go to hell, shitface. I hope your date gives you her crabs."
Without a hint of irony in his voice, Ben answered, "Great talking to you!" and then closed the door. I don't think he had the faintest idea he'd just been insulted.

Sure, Ben's annoying. But chances are you have a friend just like him. I know I do. These characters and the friendship between them (even with all the insults and trash talking) kept the book going. I enjoyed them so much, to me the whole Margo storyline was secondary. I wouldn't even mind reading a book just about Q, Radar, and Ben; they're that awesome.

In case you couldn't tell, I enjoyed this book immensely, and am looking forward to reading more of John Green's YA.

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Quentin has always had a thing for his next door neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman, an adventurous free-spirit who exists on a higher social plain. So when she invites him out for a semi-law breaking all-nighter of getting even with those who have wronged her, Quentin joins in and has high hopes for a

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future together. But when Margo doesn’t show up for school the next day, Quentin finds out that she’s run away and only a series of clues, left just for him, might lead to her whereabouts. Will Quentin find Margo in time, or is she lost to him forever?
On the surface, this novel in three parts is a lot of fun. Part 1 (the fun, frenzied night of pranks) and Part 3 (a hilarious, frenzied road trip from Florida to New York) bookend a more mundane Part 2 (search for Margo and the day to day living of a teen approaching high school graduation). There is a cast of characters defined by their quirks – Quentin’s friend Radar is embarrassed by his parents’ large collection of black Santas, prom obsessed Ben tries to live down his “bloody Ben” nickname, and of course there is the magnificent Margo, the queen of quirk, who likes urban exploring and wants to live off the map a la “Alexander Supertramp” (see Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer).
Among all this quirk, Quentin is white bread. He’s well adjusted, has perfect attendance, and lives a normal teen life. In fact, his most defining characteristic is his fascination with Margo. And while this works well on a conceptual level, on a practical level it meant that I although I could connect with his ongoing search for identity, I had a hard time connecting with him as a character.
This was my first foray into John Green territory and I like his combination of humor and deep exploration of what it means to be human. I’ll be back.

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Green's latest is profound and moving, but also laugh out loud funny. The banter between Ben, Radar, and Q was inspired. His books are meticulously crafted but thankfully avoid feeling contrived. How he finds, keeps, and incorporates all those quirkly details, I'll never know. I would love to try

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the audio version of this one just so I could hear Ben's snappy comebacks.

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I am so glad high school only lasts a few years, and that my high school years are long past. Reading novels like this makes me realize just how different teen perspectives really are. Granted, many adults never leave this limited perspective, and maybe that is part of why so many adults gravitate

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towards teen literature. The characters in Paper Towns are very full of themselves, but with absolutely no idea who they are. The metaphor of paper towns, placeholder towns on maps that have no real, physical counterpart, is actually quite good for this sort of empty but self-centered person. This book actually has a few adults who also fall into this type, especially Margo's parents, neither of whom can really understand, let alone care about Margo unless she conforms to their very superficial image of themselves as stereotypical happy, middle-class parents. Margo, while rebelling against this superficiality, has not really worked out what being a more complete person looks like. I am sure there are lots of great people all around her in her life, but she cannot see anyone but herself, so she has to run away in search of something she has a hard time defining, something besides 'paper'.

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I loved this book! It kept me guessing untill the very end and I couldn't put it down. The characters' personalities were so unique and fasinating :)

I agree with the YA who loaned me this book: the female lead is obnoxious. I also agree with her, though, that the book is fun despite the obnoxious female lead. The relationship between the narrator and his two best friends is particularly enjoyable, and I snickered out loud more than once. It is

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through these relationships, more than through his relationship with the runaway female lead, that the protagonist learns about what it means to be a friend, to be an individual, and to live life both responsibly and without regret.

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Margo starts off as a sort of manic pixie dream girl, and by the end of the novel she becomes a bitchy female Holden Caulfield, without the emotional baggage of a dead brother. Or the funny insights. Or the character depth. What exactly is she running away from? She's a cipher, a plot device. Her

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initial character development on her night of vengeance with Quentin ultimately doesn't go much of anywhere.

But as Q learns throughout the course of the novel, we cannot really know another person. It's the attempt, the journey, that is more important than the ending. That works for this book, too. The search for Margo is more interesting than the ending. As an English teacher, I love the Whitman references. More than that, I love the goofy friendship between Q, Ben, and Radar. Their banter cracks me up. "Ben Starling, you better not have bought your token black friend a racist shirt." "Poetry is just so emo. Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul." Yes, the events are at times unrealistic (at times??), but who cares? It's light with being dumb, although Green sprinkles some lovely gems of wisdom throughout and captures the angst of graduating from high school pretty well.

It ain't "The Fault In Our Stars." And that's okay. I also didn't read "Looking for Alaska," so I'm not bothered by the comparison. Three stars.

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Margo Roth Spiegelman and Quentin "Q" Jacobsen. They used to be friends, until Margo ditched Q for the cool crowd. This has been the story of Q's life, until one night, Margo appears on his window and takes him to an all-nighter, righting wrongs and committing the perfect revenge. Q thought this

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will become a new chapter in his secret love for Margo, but come next morning, he finds Margo gone. However, she left clues for him, but he is not sure if they will lead to her, or to something else.

Humor-filled, exciting, and intelligent, this book will surely get you thinking and laughing all at the same time. Not just once did I find myself laughing aloud at the exchange of banter by Q and his friends, and not only once did I also find myself thinking about the mysteries and clues that unfold as the story progresses. Q and his friends are typical band geeks and nerds, but they have a coolness about them that makes them more likeable than the cool kids. Margo, on the other hand, is as mysterious and as lonely as she is beautiful. This adventure of finding clues, uncovering truths, and trying to make sense of a very long poem will demand you to never put it down once you open and read it.

The story never loses its rhythm, each word taking you to the next with the same intensity and urgency, pulling you deeper into the story that at times, you'll feel like you need to give Q some input about what you think of Margo's clues. I am such a mystery geek but by the end of the story, I still haven't figured out any answer, which makes the outcome very exciting. The story does not digress, focusing at the events at hand, and drawing remarkable images as it goes on. You feel the fear, you hear the laughter, and you sense the tension.

Q's parents are both psychologists. Which brings up one of my 'stupid questions': "What if both your parents are psychologists?" This story did not answer my question, but it does gives humorous examples of Q's parents' conversations, all filled with amusing psychological observations:

"Those are some very troubling dynamics, eh bud?"

"Margo's parents suffer a severe narcissistic injury whenever she acts out."

Not very satisfying examples, I know, but once you read the book, you'll see what I mean.

The characters' personalities and development throughout the story are consistent but not predictable. They may be shallow at first glance, but reading through the book, we see another dimension of their being: Ben may be as shallow and as attention-seeking as the next person, but he has the most presence of mind in the most difficult of situations. And just look at Q. The scaredy-cat now turned Sherlock Holmes.

To read Paper Towns, you'll know that the author is very smart. Interesting and witty dialogue? Check. Direct, focused writing? Check. Highly quotable sentences? Check. Flawed, engaging characters? Check. Imaginative, unique premise? Check. I can go on and on forever, but tell me, can a regular person interpret Song of Myself by Walt Whitman as intelligently as the author had? I don't think so. I am definitely a regular person and I could not look at it as he had with such meaning. He writes a highly intellectual yet fun story around it, expertly and effectively making events, clues, and conversations with this poetry at its core.

This book has definitely elevated itself to one of my favorites this year. And you know the best part? I got this 20 percent off!

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Quentin is not that cool. Margo, the pretty, popular girl-next-door, knocks on his window in the middle of the night and "convinces" him to drive her around while she pulls pranks on her "cool" friends, all of whom she now hates. And then she completely disappears. Quentin proceeds to be a terrible

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friend to his other (awesome) friends and a terrible son to his (awesome) parents as he spends the last few weeks of his senior year of high school worrying about Margo and searching for Margo instead of living his own life.

I'm still a bit intrigued by John Green because he seems to be completely aware of the things I don't like about his books. Whenever I have a problem with his Manic Pixie Dream Girl, or with the excusing of bad/dangerous behavior, he addresses the problem head-on. It's just a completely unsatisfactory answer.

SPOILERS:
Why does Margo make Quentin pull pranks with her? At some point she answers this question but it is so unconvincing that I can't even remember her excuse. What was implied, in my opinion, was that she wanted to make sure someone was thinking about her when she disappeared, to ensure thst someone would waste their life trying to find her. But then when Quentin does find her, she claims that she purposely broke the chain of clues so that he wouldn't be able to find her. Did she really think that she could give someone a chain of four clues to try to find her, and if she destroyed the fifth clue they would just stop looking? If anything that's going to waste MORE of someone's time.

Also, let me tell you. I don't know everything about the internet, but I sure as heck know enough to know that if the phrase "paper towns" was in the first sentence of a Wikipedia article, Radar would find it IMMEDIATELY. I cannot accept that he just didn't see that phrase in the Wikipedia article. It would not happen. The whole point of Wikipedia is that everything is searchable.

I liked the writing style and many of the minor characters (Lacey and Radar, in particular). However, it is becoming clear that John Green and I are not going to be friends, because I don't like his major characters (ESPECIALLY the females) and his plots involve a lot of behaviors that I cannot sympathize with. I will continue to read his books, but I am not expecting to be able to rate them any higher than this one.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself giggling through a lot of it especially the road trip! I couldn't really relate to the character of Margo, but that was probably the point. I really wanted to hang out with Q, though. DFTBA.

Quentin's next-door neighbor Margo runs away from home not long before their high school graduation and Quentin follows clues to try and find her.

Another fantastic book by John Green. One thing I really like about Green's writing is that, unlike a lot of authors, his endings don't just stop the

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book. The major event happens, then it still takes a while for everything to wrap up. If there's more than one major event, they're spaced out instead of all at once.

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This seemed like a repeat of John Green's previous books, and I thought the plot was implausible. I was disappointed and hope he comes back up to his standard of quality in the next book.

I recently read John Green's "Paper Towns" And I can honestly say I loved it.
John's charactors are relatable, yet, mysterious, making you want to look deeper into the charactor analysis. It was a quite interesing read, and certainly a page-turner. I recommend this book for everyone. Go into the

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book with an open mind and dive into this book! A must read of the season!
Chloe's (my) blurb:

"A shocking novel portraying life and the myteries that surround us all. In any form they may come in."

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Paper Towns is my personal favorite of Green's works. Due to the Nerdfighter-mania which surrounds Green, I'll refrain from including a synopsis. This book is beautiful, and "awesome" - it far exceeds his freshman novel, and possibly his award-winning Looking for Alaska. While the secondary

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characters are, at times, a bit too similar to characters from Green's previous novels, they are incredibly endearing and fascinating. This book kept me on the edge of my seat, and surprises continued until the very end. I will definitely suggest this book to friends, but won't loan out my copy. It's mine, for keeps!

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