Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green is about a girl named Margo who is unhappy with her life, her town, her friends, etc. She disappears one day, and her neighbor (Quentin), who has had a crush on her since childhood, starts a search to find out where she is and what happened to her. Quentin is actually the main character, but he is so focused on getting "inside Margo's mind" during his search that the reader learns just as much about her as one does about him.

(picture taken from Goodreads)

First Impression: This is a little strange so far. Basically, there's this little girl who sees a dead body and gets really weird about it. Rather than running away, her initial reaction is to close the dead man's eyes (she doesn't, but she wanted to). Then she starts this whole investigation to find out what happened and gets spooked when talking to her friend about it. The funny thing is, the main character is just as strange in the opposite way, because he just sees the dead body, talks to his parents (who are therapists) about it, and then moves on as if nothing significant had happened. And yet, his reaction feels more normal than hers. Maybe it's just the general attitude in which this book starts that is throwing me off, because Green has already switched gears and left the beginning years behind, and I'm only twenty-three pages in. Quentin is now in high school, and he seems to live a fairly normal life outside of the major social circles. I really have no idea where this book will take me, so I'm just along for the ride at the moment.

(picture taken from Goodreads)

This is the cover on the paperback edition, which I actually think is a bit more fun. Lots of books have pictures of girls on the front, right? This one makes it special.

Conclusion: John Green has a talent for taking something basic and making it special. This book becomes something you don't expect. It starts out a little quirky, and you assume it's going to be about Q's (Quentin's) strengthened friendships or the point where he decides to let Margo go, but it's not. So, the ending wasn't what I expected or even really what I wanted, but I like how it ended overall. I don't really want to read more about Quentin and Margo, but I wouldn't mind a spin-off, maybe about Radar or Margo's little sister.