Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Published: 22/09/2009
Hello my fellow Bookworms and page turners,
This one is well out of my usual box, this is what I would call a girl-next door book. I think younger angsty teen me would have been very into this, but would of course have denied it at the first whiff of someone finding out, you know because teen boys in the late 90’s early 2000’s don’t do unusual whimsical romancey novels.
So the premise, without getting too into it, out main character an intelligent high schooler called Quentin (or Q for short) has a serious case of unrequited love with his attractive high school next-door neighbour Margo. He has been pining after her since she moved in years ago, and now they are in high school they couldn’t be more polar opposite, she is cool, attractive and goes on adventures and Quentin, well he’s your average mild mannered high schooler who for the most part tries a little too hard (definitely not relatable in anyway at all).
One Night Margo breaks into Q’s room, with the intent of “borrowing” his car in order to go and get revenge on her now Ex-Boyfriend who she has caught cheating on him. Q wakes up and confronts her. During which, she elicits his help for an all-night adventure, and the two bond over their hijinks. Q thinks they’ve entered a new stage in their relationship, but then the next day she promptly vanishes..
Now Margo, it turns out, has disappeared from home a few times before. But Q suspects something serious has happened this time, especially based on some cryptic clues she’s left behind. And so, in a long and circuitous second section that also involves his two buddies, Ben & Radar, which are equally not relatable at all (definitely not sarcasm… its Sarcasm) and Margo’s frenemy Lacey (somewhat less defined), they try to discover her whereabouts.
I did find that there were some issues with the pacing, but the premise and characters were sound, in fact the characters were so real I think they may have been based of some people I actually know! It was annoyingly heartfelt, and very funny in parts, I related to the main character a bit more then id like to admit. although, he was a little overbearing at times. It was a fun read and although fiction, a very different fiction to what I usually read.
Until next time, read more books!
Between|the|Blurb 