Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green, Dutton Juvenile, 2008, 305 pp, $17.99, Realistic Fiction, ISBN: 0525478183



The allure of an unattainable girl. The uncertainty of the future. The false nature of both high school and suburban life. The timelessness of Walt Whitman. This is Paper Towns.

Quentin Jacobson has spent most of his life in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman. Rarely referred to by her first name only, Margo Roth Spiegelman is the kind of girl who many of us secretly wish we were: beautiful, daring, brilliant, and reckless. When Margo goes missing at the end of their senior year, she leaves behind a trail of mysterious clues for Quentin to follow (although they really haven't spoken for the majority of their high school lives). Most of the people in Margo's life are used to her sudden disappearances and are more focused on living up the end of senior year, rather than dwelling on where she might have gone. Quentin, however, becomes obsessed. Paper Towns tells the story of his quest to find her.

I added this book to my reading list because it was listed in Scholastic's SCOPE magazine as a #1 choice by students. So, some people must have really liked it. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. I thought it was monotonous and I honestly did not like a single one of the self-indulgent characters (except maybe Radar, who only ever got to be Quentin's supportive sidekick).  

Although it followed a similar theme of "a life being forever changed by an unattainable girl with dark thoughts," I strongly preferred Green's Printz Award winner, Looking for Alaska. I thought it was incredibly unique and thought provoking. It made me feel something! If you are wanting to read something by John Green, I would look for Alaska first.

In fairness to the author, here is a video of him reading the prologue of Paper Towns (which I did actually enjoy!).


So what do you think? Am I all wrong about Paper Towns? Have you ever been let down by a book that everyone else seemed to think was fabulous?