Paper Towns: A Book Review
October 12, 2009 • written by Ruby Oluoch
At some point in almost everyone’s lives, they’ve held someone to ridiculously inhuman standards. Whether it’s been dehumanizing an enemy, making it easier to hate, or dehumanizing someone they admired, making them extremely easy to adore, most have been at fault of this. Forget they hurt or cry or lie just like you and it’s just as easy to forget that that they are a person just like you.
In the novel, Paper Towns by John Green, Quentin Jacobsen is guilty of exactly this offense. Ever since he was nine, Quentin (lovingly referred to as Q by his friends and family), has been a little in love with his gorgeous, intelligent, frequent run-away and effortlessly awesome next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spieglman. However, Q has only been able to admire Margo from afar ever since they became estranged after one fateful afternoon almost a decade earlier.
Two weeks before graduation, Margo simultaneously invites herself back into Q’s life and into his room while wearing black ninja attire in the dead of the night. She requests that Q accompany her on a night chock full of elaborate pranks and brilliant break-ins that are wildly illegal. Q hesitantly complies and ends up having one of the most unforgettable nights of his life.
Satisfied with the midnight event, Q is anxious to see whether Margo will acknowledge him the next morning. He arrives at school only to find that Margo isn’t there, but he figures she must have been tired from the wild adventure and decided to skip. But when Q returns home, he’s informed by a police officer that Margo has run away yet again. Everyone is upset, but no one truly shocked.
Left only to decipher vague clues that Margo has left for him, Q makes it his mission to find Margo and spends most of his remaining high school career trying to do so. With the support of his two hilarious best friends, Q learns more about Margo and himself than he’d known in the many years he’d lived next to her.
John Green does an excellent job on his third young adult novel. Though it can make the story feel slow at first, he does a spectacular job with developing his characters. Quentin was refreshingly likeable, although a frustrating character to deal with at times. I would often find myself wishing that he’d give up on Margo and spend his final weeks of high school participating in the fun events he’d ditch his friends for. And even though I wanted him to realize that Margo was only an unextraordinary angsty melodramatic teenage girl that was totally undeserving of his attention, I can’t deny that it was his determination and loyalty to Margo that I found super endearing. Q’s best friends, Ben and Radar, offer hilarious and witty commentary that will make you wish you had a pair of pals like them.
Green also includes a realistic and believable voice to his teenagers. The dialogue is fresh and comical, a strange mix that can be hard to find in many young adult novels. Another rarity I found was his ability to have token minority characters without making them walking ethnic labels. This well-plotted book is intimate and real all while touching on sensitive human feelings. It manages to be deep and philosophical in parts without feeling preachy. I truly believe this book has something for everybody-mystery fans, comedy fans, romance fans, and action fans alike. This is definitely a book I will continue to pick up off the book shelf.
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Ruby,
Very well done! I look forward to reading more book reviews from you. You write so well!
Nice job Ruby!
You write so well… smart girl, many more things to come your way.
Great Job!