Paper Towns

Author- John Green

Lexile- 850

Page count- 345

Genre- Mystery

Awards- 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery

My rating- ⅘ stars!

“Paper Towns” is a mixture of mystery and a bit of romance because when the girl that Q loves (Margo) goes missing, he tries to find clues that leads him to find out where Margo is. Paper Towns takes place in modern time in Orlando, Florida, but Margo runs away from Florida to a “Paper town”. A paper town is a town marked on a map that doesn’t actually exist. Q is trying to find Margo, his friend and the girl he loves who has run away.  

One day, two kids, Q, and Margo, find a dead body in the park. 9 years later Margo shows up unexpectedly at Q’s window asking him for a favor, she wants him to drive her around so she can get revenge on people. The next day Margo does not show up at school, she has gone missing. Q believes Margo has left clues for Q to find her. Q is determined to find her. Does Q find Margo? Does she come home? Is she still alive? Read Paper Towns to find out. The theme of this book is “chasing after what you want in life”. Margo shows this by leaving Orlando. She doesn’t care about leaving everything at once because it’s what she wants at the time and she might not be able to do it later. Q also shows this by skipping graduation to go find Margo because that’s what he wanted out of life at the moment.

I liked how Q was finding clues as to where Margo was, and how he went through a lot to find the girl he loves. I didn’t like how the book was kind of slow, and I also wasn’t very fond of the ending. I think girls/women would appreciate this book more, but boys would enjoy it too. Read if you like mystery books with a bit of romance.