Paper Towns by John Green

Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.

I first read Paper Towns last year. I had decided to read John Green's books after already having been a fan of the vlogbrothers for a while. Looking for Alaska had been my first attempt, and while I wasn't much a fan of that particular book, I had recognized his style of writing to be particularly beautiful and something of which I wanted to read more. Paper Towns immediately became a favorite and retains that distinction even now. In fact, my second reading of this fabulous story only cemented that fact.

Quentin Jacobson is your average teenage boy. He's not popular or unpopular, but somewhere in the middle with his two best friends and the other kids he's friends with in the band. Plus he has a huge crush on the most popular girl in school and his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman.

So when Margo sticks her head in his window and requests his help on a "mission" of hers, it doesn't take all that much coaxing before he's driving her all around Orlando, aiding her in all manner of odd pranks. She's known for this sort of thing, for being something akin to a force of nature.

Quentin can't help but hope that this late night gallivant means things will change between them, but she doesn't show up at school the next day, or the day after that. No one seems to know where she has gone. This in itself surprises no one, it isn't the first time Margo has run off for a couple of days. But when a couple of days turns into a couple of weeks, Quentin can't help getting worried.

Just like the previous times she's run off, Margo has left clues to her whereabouts. Now it's up to Quentin to decipher them and find her before it's too late . . . if it isn't already too late.

A brilliant work through and through, Paper Towns is the story of Quentin's journey to find Margo and discover himself along the way. It's about friendship and loyalty, but it's mostly about the way we perceive others and how dangerous it is to see others as what you think they ought to be instead of who they are.

Once again, John Green has undeniably proved that he can create memorable characters and a compelling story, all while continuing to wow his readers with his mastery of the English language and his ability to weave it into something beautiful.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

There are so many people. It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.