I have been on a John Green kick lately. I decided I needed to read all of his books because I loved The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska so much. Paper Towns is in production as the second movie based on a John Green Novel. After reading all of the novels, I have to say I wish they would have chosen to make Looking for Alaska.
Quentin Jacobsen and Margot Roth Spiegelman were always neighbors. As children they are friends and the story begins with a shared traumatic experience. Flash forward to high school and the two rarely speak. Quentin is a non-instrument playing band geek, while Margot is an A-lister.
Margot is also a bit of a flighty trouble maker with a dramatic flair. One night she involves Quentin in a pre-planned revenge plot after she discovers some of her friends are not as loyal as she had thought. Quentin is confused about why she chose him for this adventure, but he goes along.
The next day Margot is gone. No one seems surprised, even her parents and the police. She has run away many times and her parents are kind of douche bags and say they don't care where she went...they are changing the locks anyway.
Quentin wants to find her, and after he finds a clue - left by Margot, he enlists his friends t help him find her by following the clues she has laid out for him.
It is hard not to give spoilers in these reviews, so I will write about the writing. John Green creates great characters. Quentin is timid and plain...possibly even boring. Margot is a ball of mystery and personality. They work together as a teenage love story, because he loves her without knowing her and as he finds out more about her he just becomes more and more intrigued.
The secondary characters are nice and round and play important supporting roles. Radar was my favorite with his strange parents who collect black santas, and his obsession with his information database.
Here is the part where I admit to cheating. I did not read this book I listened to the audio book. I feel that the performance may have hurt my opinion of the book. This is the case for most audio books, but I would have no time to read anything for pleasure if I didn't cheat. That being said, if you don't have time to read the book, go for the audio book. The performance wasn't bad. I just always fee like I would have pictured characters differently if I had read the book. The voices change my perception.
The story line is easy to follow, but I was at a loss with Margot in the end. Everything with her seems performed, likening her to the character of Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars. It feels like everything she does is meant to be noticed and she is not happy when the little things she is doing for attention are missed.
All in all I enjoyed the story. I will wait for the movie to come out On Demand, but I am happy for John Green's success. He deserves his fandom because he is a good role model for young geeks everywhere.
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