Paper Towns - By John Green

Title: Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Paperback: 320

Genre: Realistic Friction

Quentin Jacobsen is just a normal kid living in Orlando going through his final year at his high school along with his "not so normal" childhood friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo appears one night randomly asking him to drive her around town playing along with her revenge schemes. While doing so, he is shown the world in Margo's perception, of paper towns and girls and boys going through the motions. Quentin, confident he now won't have to spend the rest of his senior year completely alone, is sadly disappointed when he learns that Margo has run away from home the day after their night of blackmailing, and vandalizing. This sets up the ill-fated cross country trip to go and find Margo Roth Spiegelman before the end of graduation with Quentin's best friends, Marcus "Radar" Lincoln, and "Bloody Ben" Starling, in tow. John Green wrote this book expertly, capturing the life of a normal high schooler and throwing him into situations needing immense dedication and a mini-van. The plot will build you up and drop you down in the most unexpected ways possible, leaving you high and dry for pages or more as the book slowly builds you up again drawing you more and more into the book. A twisting plot that will surprise you and disappoint you in the best definition of the word possible. Green writes in such a way that leaves the reader trying to figure everything out making for a dramatic realization at the very end of the book. Margo Roth Spiegelman will confuse and tantalize you, while "Q" tags along for the ride, hanging on through waves of confusion and vagueness in trying to catch the ever so mysterious Margo. As the story develops, so do the characters. As Quentin finds his own way in the world, he starts to realize Margo's darker side, the side that makes her so mysterious and unpredictable, bottled up from view ever since her childhood. This is a great boy meet girl and girl ends up running away from home story that captures the reader and doesn't let them go until the story is finally over. This is one of the books I will read over and over again in the future.

Rating: ✭✭✭✭