John Green amazes me with each new book – the way he captures the humor, insecurities, friendships, and emotions of his characters is so enjoyable I find myself laughing and aching for them with every turn of the page.
Paper Towns, Green’s latest trip back to high school, is smart, witty, and sharply human. Q has loved Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar for years. Never one of the more popular kids, he’s made his way through school with some steady friendships and subdued existence. But one night, Margo chooses him to help her carry out her greatest series of pranks yet and Q can’t believe his luck. Everything changes the next morning, however, when Margo has disapeared.
But she has left clues – clues just for him – and just a few weeks before graduation, Q turns his attention and energy towards unraveling the puzzle of Margo Roth Spiegelman. The supporting characters, Q’s friends and their girlfriends, get the same care and development that Green puts into developing Q, and through her clues and the reactions of all who knew her, Margo herself. The complexity of high school, the trials, frustrations and true friendships, are explored and relished in this enjoyable book. There’s so much more to this life than the paper-thin existences that most people create for themselves, and in Paper Towns we get a glimpse of it through Green’s characters’ eyes.
- Posted by Cori