“Here’s what’s not beautiful about it: from here, you can’t see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You see how fake it all is. It’s not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It’s a paper town. I mean look at it Q: look at all those cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I’ve lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.”
“I’ll try not to take that personally,” I said.
John Green has done it again. He’s matched up a nerdy guy with a mysterious charismatic girl and produced a fantastic story that is funny, challenging, and great to read. Quentin (Q) has always had a thing for Margo Roth Spiegelman with whom he discovered a dead body when they were youngsters. Now in their final year of high school Q and Margo are at opposite ends of the social ladder.
Q is surprised therefore, when Margo appears at his window late one night wearing black face paint and inviting him to join her as she ticks off a list of eleven things that she needs to do that night, at least five of which require a getaway man. Needless to say, Q does help Margo with her tasks and has a fantastic time. But that’s only part of the story.
Then Margo vanishes. Her parents write it off as another of her regular running away episodes, but Q starts following a trail of clues trying to track her down. He ventures to parts of Orlando he has never seen before, and then along with several friends, embarks on what can best be described as a road trip against the clock, trying to find Margo in a town that doesn’t really exist before she is gone again.
If you liked Looking for Alaska, which I did, then you will probably also like Paper Towns. Some of the characters are similar – nerdy guys and a mysterious girl with issues – but the situation and storyline is quite different. It doesn’t have quite the same emotional oomph as Alaska, but it has one of the best road trips of all time.
John Green is hot property in the YA scene at the moment, and with good reason. He writes exceptional books. I had the opportunity to hear him speak when he was in Melbourne recently and can also confirm that he is a funny and entertaining speaker, but of course you already know this because you have been over to his blog and watched some wonderful videos, haven’t you?
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Brilliant book. Interesting scenario and thought-provoking writing about how we think of ourselves and others.
I loved Looking for Alaska, was a bit less keen on An Abundance of Katherines, but perhaps enjoyed this one best of all.