Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Publisher: Dutton Books

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: High school boys and girls.

Reader's Advisory: If you like looking for missing girls, help Adam find his sister in Graham Marks's novel Missing in Tokyo.

Summary:
Quentin thinks his dreams are coming true when his neighbor and long-time crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman not only notices him but invites him on a night of adventure. Together they drive around Orlando "bringing the rain" down on people who have wronged Margo (and even one person who has wronged Quentin). Q can't help but wonder what the next day will bring. And what it brings isn't Margo. She has disappeared.
Soon Q starts finding clues that are just for him. For the second time she has chosen him. He is the only one who can find her (maybe with the help of some friends and the Omnictionary), and he isn't going to let her down.

My favorite passage:

I kept going through the A's and then the B's - making my way through the Beatles and the Blind Boys of Alabama and Blondie - and I started to rifle through them more quickly, so quickly that I didn't even see the back cover of Billy Bragg's Mermaid Avenue until I was looking at the Buzzcocks. I stopped, went back, and pulled out the Billy Bragg record. The front was a photograph of urban row houses. But on the back, Woody Guthrie was staring at me, a cigarette hanging out of his lips, holding a guitar that said THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.
"Hey," I said. Ben looked over.
"Holy shitstickers" he said. "Nice find." Radar spun around the chair and said, "Impressive. Wonder what's inside."
Unfortunately, only a record was inside. The record looked exactly like a record. I put it on Margo's record player and eventually figured out how to turn it on and put down the needle. It was some guy singing Woody Guthrie songs. He sang better than Woody Guthrie.
"What is it, just a crazy coincidence?"
Ben was holding the album cover. "Look," he said. He was pointing at the song list. In thin black pen, the song title "Walt Whitman's Niece" had been circled.
"Interesting," I said. Margo's mom had said that Margo's clues never led anywhere, but I knew now that Margo had created a chain of clues - and she had seemingly made them for me. I immediately thought of her in the SunTrust Building, telling me I was better when I showed confidence. (pg 113)

What I really think:
Once Margo went missing I found myself thinking "Please don't let this be another Looking for Alaska." Don't get me wrong, I love Looking for Alaska, but Green did that already, and since he seems to be pretty much amazing, he ought to have more stories in him.
There are some similarities: Boy obsesses over unatainable girl who is made even more unatainable by the fact that she disappears. He strives to understand her and ultimately understands more about life and himself.
By the end I decided it was different enough from Alaska to make me happy.
The mystery aspect is fun, but there are enough serious moments to remind you how important it is to Q that he solve the mystery. I actually like the meditations on "Song of Myself." As a teenager I often looked for answers in poetry and literature, and sometimes you can find answers there.
Green may be the only person who could make me enjoy Whitman, but I still don't like "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." Do you hear me, Green? I like knowing the science behind stars!