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Book Summary:
The book begins in Orlando, Florida when the protagonist, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen, and his neighbor and friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman, both nine-years-old at the time, find the body of one Robert Joyner, a divorced man who had committed suicide. Flash forward to high school. Q and Margo are no longer the close friends they used to be. Margo is popular and dating starting shortstop Jason Worthington while Q is a band geek, who isn't in the band but spends all his free time there with his best friends Marcus “Radar” Lincoln and Ben Starling.
Margo finds out that Jase has cheated on her with her friend Becca, so she enlists Q's help to get back at them in a night he will never forget. The next day, Q wonders if Margo will begin eating lunch and hanging out with him and his friends since she is upset with the popular kids, but she doesn't show up for school. After going missing for three days, Margo's parents file a report with the police, but decide that since this is the fifth time she's run away, they don't care if she comes back. After learning that Margo has run away, Q discovers a poster of Woody Guthrie taped to the back of her window shades. This leads him to a string a clues that he believes will ultimately lead him to where Margo has run, so he, Radar, Ben, and Margo's friend Lacey all team up to hunt her down.
My Review:
Paper Towns is my second favorite book by John Green. The story was really interesting, and I liked it a lot. About half way through the book I wasn't sure if they were going to find Margo at all, and if they did find her whether she was going to be dead or alive. Because of this, I did what I always do (and people think is crazy), I read the last chapter of the book. Most people think that ruins the book, but I like to know where a book is headed so I can prepare myself.
I enjoyed the character Q a lot. Although he doesn't have a strong voice, he was a great character that I found myself really routing for by the end as he comes to figure out not only who Margo really is but who he is as well. Along with him, I liked the secondary characters of Ben, Radar, and Lacey. In the beginning of the book, Green makes you want to dislike Lacey. He turns her character around quickly, and she adds the much needed female perspective to the group. Plus, being the only character other than Q who knows Margo at all, she is the only one who is truly worried about Margo which creates a nice bond between the two of them. Although Ben and Radar are great characters, I think that they are there more for comical relief than anything else, even though Radar definitely progresses the story at times with his knowledge of computers and the internet.
By the end, I found myself really bothered by Margo. I just didn't like her at all. I thought she was super selfish and needed to get over herself. Her character is probably my biggest issue with the book. She's just kind of a jerk, and I wanted Q to get over her and find someone better to be in love with. Other than that, there were parts of the story that were slightly confusing to follow, and I needed to reread a couple pages to understand what was going on. But, that could be more that I was reading quickly than an actual issue with Green's writing.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself through this book. I would recommend it to others, but be warned that there is some salty teen talk and sexual references, though nothing overly graphic and I don't believe any f bombs (I'm not totally positive about the f word, but I don't recall there being any).
My Rating: 8/10
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