Paper Towns

Reading Paper Towns by John Green, I'd forgotten how much I love a good mystery. Throw in some Woody Guthrie, a missing girl, and some Walt Whitman, and you've got a pretty irresistible story.  However, like many mysteries, I've not sure how much of it is even remotely believable. But the story's charms are best found in the relationships of the three best friends at the core of the story -- quentin, Ben, and radar -- and, Of course, Ben's Relationship And relentless search For Margo Roth Spiegelman ((Who would especially appreciate the unconventional capitalization of this last sentence since "The rules of capitalization are so unfair to words in the middle of a sentence" (Green 236).) as they live out the final weeks of their senior years.

Quentin is cruising toward another year of perfect attendance and attending Duke University when his neighbor and childhood friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman appears outside his bedroom window for the first they were nine-years-old. Margo takes Quentin on her meticulously planned out plot of revenge, hijinks, and more. By the end of the night and into the early morning, Margo and Quentin have rekindled their friendship and Q has hopes that Margo, who hangs with the cool kids, will be friends with him at school. We never find out because Margo pulls an Alexander Supertramp of sorts and disappears from Orlando and is absent from school. Everyone figures it is just Margo being Margo and she's bound to return in triumphant Margo-style. After all, she did skip town to Mississippi on her own before. Margo's missing days turn into weeks.



 Meantime, the trio of friends play detective. Led by Quentin's doggedness and Radar's technological savvy, they unearth some clues which lead them closer to Margo. Along the way, they navigate the high school fish tank in which the jocks are jerks but some people turn out to be not quite what they seem. The search continues and maybe Margo wasn't quite what she seemed. Will they find Margo? Will it be too late if they do find her?

Green skillfully re-creates perverted male teen dialogue down to the obsessive discourse of video games and their own genitalia. If only guys were half as articulate and witty as Paper Towns' male trio. Q, Ben, and Radar are "nerdtastic" and proud. Green makes being smart and geeky cool.

Paper Towns resonated with me, having grown up in a pretty soulless suburb, not different from the Oak Park of Ernest Hemingway's childhood, a "neighborhood of wide lawns and small minds." Teens who feel trapped in cookie cutter developments in Anytown, U.S.A. may commiserate. Green's novel is a reminder that high school doesn't last forever and for those jaded with their "paper towns," you can always leave after (or before?) you graduate.