Paper Towns- my thoughts

Paper Towns
by John Green
Young Adult
320 pages

From Goodreads:
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

Just like his other two novels that I've read, Green has this way with his writing that grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me into the book. Not everything is what it seems on the OUTSIDE with these characters and it isn't until you truly find out who Margo really is that the pieces fall into place and you understand that each person, regardless of age, is just trying to find out WHO they really are. Green has written another solid story and one that I would highly recommend. I especially love how he's taken such an obscure, unknown fact as a paper town and wrote a whole book based on that premise...the man is a genius I tell ya!!! Of course, my favorite character is Quentin. He's lovable, he's honest, he's a true FRIEND, and he is hopelessly in love with the IDEA of Margo and who he thought she was. After they go on their night of revenge Margo disappears and it is during that time period of trying to find her that Quentin actually discovers some real truths about himself and in the end Margo. This book has it all and I think anyone would be happy that they took the time to read it. And if you haven't read any of John Green's books...STOP...and put them on your TBR list NOW!!!!! Make it a must-read for 2009!!! And, as always, because I'm a quote and passage freak, I will leave you with a couple of my favorites from this book.

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I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know the answer, but of course I had my hopes: maybe Margo needed to see my confidence. Maybe this time she wanted to be found, and to be found by me. maybe just as she had chosen me on the longest night, she had chosen me again. And maybe untold riches awaited he who found her.

p. 115

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"I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen," Whitman writes. And then for two pages, he's just hearing: hearing a steam whistle, hearing people's voices, hearing an opera. he sits on the grass and lets the sound pour through him. And this is what I was trying to do, too, I guess: to listen to all the little sounds of her, because before any of it could make sense, it had to be heard. For so long, I hadn't really heard Margo-I'd seen her screaming and thought her laughing-that now I figured it was my job. to try, even at this great remove, to hear the opera of her.

p. 196

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My favorite one:

The fundamental mistake I had always made-and that she had, in fairness, always led me to-was this: Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.



Other Reviews:

Nymeth- things mean a lot: Paper Towns Review
Stuff as Dreams are Made On
Book Nut
Presenting Lenore
Casual Dread
Heather at Book Addiction