Paper Towns by John Green

A very good book. The plot was so well written - I didn't want to stop reading. It took me about 2 days to read. While there wasn't a lot of detail about the characters - except Margo - I was still able to "see" them. Q, Ben, and Radar are absolutely hilarious with their bantering. While initially they are not the popular guys at school, a twist of fate makes them popular guys. Q has been in love with Margo since they were kids. Margo is seen as the rebel and is very popular. She hates Orlando and has called it a paper town because she feels that everything is fake and flimsy. When she finds out that her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend, all the strings inside her break. She sought revenge on her "circle of friends" - with Q's help. She left the next day without saying a word. While Margo's parents are washing their hands of Margo, Q feels that Margo wants him to find her, so he starts his own investigation and follows clues to find her. When he has figured out where she is, he decides to not attend high school graduation so he can get to her. Radar, Ben, and Lacey do not let him go it alone, so they skip graduation also and set out on a road trip to Agloe, New York. Agloe is a fictitious village inserted into tourist maps as a copyright trap, or paper town (p. 235). When the gang finds Margo, she is mad at them for finding her because she didn't want to be found. Q asked her why she chose Agloe and she said,

"A paper town for a paper girl. ...The truth is that whenever I went up to the top of the SunTrust Building, I didn't really look down and think about how everything was made of paper. I looked down and thought about how I was made of paper. I was the flimsy-foldable person, not everyone else. ...it's kind of great, being an idea that everybody likes. But I could never be the idea to myself, not all the way. ...it seemed like a way to tell that paper girl who cared about popularity and clothes and everything else: 'You are going to the paper towns. And you are never coming back.' " (p. 293-294)

What a story about "coming of age." During the journey, Q came to realize that while we know people, we truly don't know people. We accept them for who they are and we like them anyway. I think both boys and girls would like this book. It moves at a good pace while the characters and the story are believable. I think the readers would be able to identify with one or more of the characters. While no one advocates running away as a solution, maybe someone reading this novel would see the ramifications of running away and its effect on family and friends and choose another option for solving the problem.