Paper Towns by John Green

I will start off by saying that I love John Green. His book Looking for Alaska was a Printz award winner for the best YA book of the year a couple of years ago. But I think that I liked An Abundance of Katherines even better because of how quirky it was. It was a Printz honor book. Green seems to remember what it was like to be young and even though his books have male narrators and main characters, they can be enjoyed by both male and female readers. Additionally his books have just the right mix of serious and humorous elements. They are a joy to read.

Paper Towns is John Green's latest novel and it is just as good as the other two. Quentin has lived next door to the fabulous Margo Roth Spiegelman almost his entire life. While they were good friends when they were younger, now that they are in high school, they exist in entirely different circles. Margo is part of the popular crowd while Quentin is a geek. However, Quentin is quite content with his station in life and has no desire to be part of the popular group. But he loves the exotic and chaotic Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar or at least across the street.

One month before his high school graduation and one week before prom, Q is shocked when he finds Margo outside his window in the middle of the night. She has planned an adventure and wants Q to go with her. The adventure involves righting the many wrongs of the world. The conservative Q has the time of his life and can't wait to tell his friends about it the next day at school. However, the next day, Margo doesn't show up to school and Q discovers that she has disappeared. Her parents say that she has run off AGAIN and since she is 18, they refuse to look for her. But Q thinks there the something strange going on and he sets out to find her. To help the search, Margo leaves strange clues for him to find and Q worries that maybe Margo has gone off somewhere to die. Through the search for Margo, Q discovers that he is searching not just for the person, but for who Margo really is. Add in Q's two best friends and Margo's friends and Green produces a story that you can't put down until the last page.