Paper Towns - John Green

Goodreads Synopsis:

Quentin has always loved Margo Roth Spiegelman, for Margo (and her adventures) is the staff of legend at their high school. So when she one day climbs through his window and summons him on an all-night road trip of revenge, he cannot help but follow.

But the next day, Margo doesn't come to school and a week later she is still missing. Q soon learns that there are clues in her disappearance, and they are for him. But as he gets deeper into the mystery - culminating in another awesome roadtrip across America - he becomes less sure of who and what he is looking for.

Masterfully written by John Green, this a thoughtful, insightful and hilarious coming-of-age story.

Review:

This is one of those teenage novels that goes very deep with so much going on in the head of the protagonist. Very much like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Fault In Our Stars. It is very profound with complex teenage issues.

QUENTIN, or Q, is our main character. He is a very-well adjusted senior who is at the bottom of the hierarchy of the student body in their high school.

MARGO ROTH SPIEGELMAN on the other hand is queen bee.

They are childhood friends who grew apart along the way, but Q developed a little crush on Margo. I love that Q calls her by her full name, it gives you the sensation that she is in fact higher up the pecking order. While they were children, they found a dead body in the park while they were playing. That's when Q's crush on Margo Roth Spiegelman initiated.

One night, Q is awakened by Margo and asks him to accompany her for a night around town to do some personal tasks she wants done that very night.

The next morning, Q doesn't know what to expect in school, will they talk to each other? Sit with each other at lunch? Greet each other on the hallways? What happens next was not in the list of scenarios running through Q's mind, Margo doesn't show up for school. Not just for a day but for forever. He has no idea where she went and she never gave any hint during the night they spent together.

He finds a clue weeks after her disappearance, she might have left for him to figure out where she might be. He runs around town and the outskirts holding on to only a poem he thinks is the clue to her whereabouts. At this point, I found the book a little bit redundant when he was looking for her at different pseudo-visions and him going back and forth to the real estate office where he found little clues that Margo might have stayed there before she took off to nowhere.

Until he finds a break and an exact location. So he sets out on a journey to find her and he drags his friends along, Ben and Radar, and one of Margo's friends, Lacey. When they find her living in a dilapidated barn, she gets mad at them for even trying to looking for her when she doesn't want to be found. As it turns out, she hadn't left any clue for Q whatsoever. And sensing her hostility, Ben, Radar and Lacey leaves to spend the night at a motel.

Ultimately, Q comes to accept that she has decided to set out to New York and leave her family and home for good. It is implied that Q will return home with his friends in the end, but it left ambiguous. Even the possibility of them meeting again in the near future is left vague.