Paper Towns by John Green

A book I'm sure you've heard of: Paper Towns by John Green. As I'm a proud nerdfighter (Vlogbrothers forever!), this review will be unabashedly mixed with references. As a nerd and a reader and an enthusiast for knowledge, nerdiness, weird references, and decreasing worldsuck, I strongly recommend this Youtube channel. Just saying.

Note: I am aware there is a movie. In fact, I am aware there is a movie because I watch John's Youtube channel. I also read this book, An Abundance of Katharines, and The Fault in Our Stars because of the Youtube channel. However, I have seen none of these movies.

Okay! On to the actual review!

Q (Quentin) has always half-had-a-crush-on, half loved Margo Roth Spiegelman, his neighbor and childhood friend/family friend/acquaintance. At school, where both of them are seniors, Margo is the queen and Q is a lowly peasant: they haven't talked in a long time, ever since they found a dead body together (long story). One night, though, Margo opens his window and drafts him as her getaway driver in a prank-filled, heartbeat-increasing-to-dangerous-levels night of revenge involving eleven extremely carefully planned catfish-related pranks. After one night of amazing fun together, though, Q shows up back at school to realize that Margo has become a mystery. As he and his best friends wonder where she's gone, Q has to come to terms with the way he's always seen Margo, and the way she really is.

Although pleasantly mature in terms of truths meditated, Paper Towns definitely is teen, with high school senior characters and references to language and other not-so-child-appropriate ideas... Personally I feel that the nature of the story gets better at the end and is worth wincing at the teen-y-ness, but if you are uncomfortable with that... yeah.

Paper Towns is, however, an absolutely amazing book. I really love the way John Green writes: his characters are teenagers, but they uncover truths of life in their thoughts. A summary can't do this book justice because it's less about the still-amazing plot and more about learning about each other. Whitman, Margo, and Q all have different ways of looking at looking at people that I all think are extremely powerful.

Five stars!

I'd recommend John Green's other books, An Abundance of Katherines and The Fault in Our Stars, as well as his tumblr, his youtube channel(s), and his ideas.

Happy reading!

~Citali

P. S. One more week until Theme Week: here's a hint! "Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies. You must know this, Dumbledore." (Guess the speaker!)