Paper Towns

(From Barnes & Noble) Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Paper Towns could be the best book of 2008! Is it perfect? No (but what book is?), yet John Green has created a phenomenal story that mixes romance, adventure, mystery, and humor. All the things that make up a fascinating, page-turning read.

I absolutely loved the characters--with the exception of Margo. Q was a character to whom I could easily relate. He was the typical guy next door--smart, considerate, and strong. His friends, Radar and Ben, added humor to the story. Radar was the cool, closet nerd with a good heart and embarrassing parents. Ben was the hilarious, free-willed friend that every person longs to have. Margo, on the other hand, just had too many issues. I like complicated characters, but Margo seemed to have gone off the deep end. While I understand her motives, her actions and timing remain confusing to me.

The settings and mysterious plot flowed nicely together, as each place in Paper Towns is relevant in its own way. This said, John Green has this magical gift of giving every place and every action a deeper meaning than a reader might expect.

I was anticipating that Paper Towns would be an exceptional story since it was written by John Green, the literary genius. I was not disappointed, in fact, it exceeded my expectations! Fans of other John Green novels and Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why will once again be spellbound by thought-provoking material and extraordinary characters.