Paper Towns

September 8, 2008
Green melds elements from his Looking for Alaska
and An Abundance of Katherines—
the impossibly sophisticated but unattainable girl, and a life-altering road trip—for another teen-pleasing read. Weeks before graduating from their Orlando-area high school, Quentin Jacobsen's childhood best friend, Margo, reappears in his life, specifically at his window, commanding him to take her on an all-night, score-settling spree. Quentin has loved Margo from not so afar (she lives next door), years after she ditched him for a cooler crowd. Just as suddenly, she disappears again, and the plot's considerable tension derives from Quentin's mission to find out if she's run away or committed suicide. Margo's parents, inured to her extreme behavior, wash their hands, but Quentin thinks she's left him a clue in a highlighted volume of Leaves of Grass.
Q's sidekick, Radar, editor of a Wikipedia-like Web site, provides the most intelligent thinking and fuels many hilarious exchanges with Q. The title, which refers to unbuilt subdivisions and “copyright trap” towns that appear on maps but don't exist, unintentionally underscores the novel's weakness: both milquetoast Q and self-absorbed Margo are types, not fully dimensional characters. Readers who can get past that will enjoy the edgy journey and off-road thinking. Ages 12–up.

Starred review from October 1, 2008
Gr 9 Up-Quentin Jacobsen, 17, has been in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, for his entire life. A leader at their Central Florida high school, she has carefully cultivated her badass image. Quentin is one of the smart kids. His parents are therapists and he is, above all things, "goddamned well adjusted." He takes a rare risk when Margo appears at his window in the middle of the night. They drive around righting wrongs via her brilliant, elaborate pranks. Then she runs away (again). He slowly uncovers the depth of her unhappiness and the vast differences between the real and imagined Margo. Florida's heat and homogeneity as depicted here are vivid and awful. Green's prose is astoundingfrom hilarious, hyperintellectual trash talk and shtick, to complex philosophizing, to devastating observation and truths. He nails itexactly how a thing feels, looks, affectspage after page. The mystery of Margoher disappearance and her personhoodis fascinating, cleverly constructed, and profoundly moving. Green builds tension through both the twists of the active plot and the gravitas of the subject. He skirts the stock coming-of-age character arcQuentin's eventual bravery is not the revelation. Instead, the teen thinks deeper and harderabout the beautiful and terrifying ways we can and cannot know those we love. Less-sophisticated readers may get lost in Quentin's copious transcendental ruminationsgive "Paper Towns" to your sharpest teens."Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2008
Quentin--or "Q." as everyone calls him--has known his neighbor, the fabulous Margo Roth Spiegelman, since they were two. Or has he? Q. cant help but wonder, when, amonth before high-school graduation, she vanishes. Atfirst he worries that she might have committed suicide, but then he begins discovering clues that seem to have been left for him, which might reveal Margos whereabouts. Yet the more he and his pals learn, the moreQ. realizes he doesnt knowand the more he comes to understand that the real mystery is not Margos fate but Margo herself--enigmatic, mysterious, and so very alluring. Yes, there are echoes of Greens award-winningLooking for Alaska (2006): a lovely, eccentric girl; a mystery that begs to be solved by clever, quirky teens; and telling quotations (from The Leaves of Grass, this time) beautifully integrated into the plot. Yet, if anything, the thematic stakes are higher here, as Green ponders the interconnectedness of imagination and perception, of mirrors and windows, of illusion and reality. That he brings it off is testimony to the fact that he is not onlyclever and wonderfully witty but also deeply thoughtful and insightful.In addition, hes asuperb stylist, with a voice perfectly matched tohis amusing, illuminating material.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2009
Staid, ironic Quentin idolizes Margo Roth Spiegelman, the enigmatic girl next door. She enlists him for a night of pranks only to disappear the next morning. Quentin and friends unravel Margo's plans, imbuing their final days of high school with new meaning. The fumbling detectives, each with his or her own idiosyncrasies and strengths, will capture readers' imaginations.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2008
Green's latest ode to suburban disconnect, feminine inscrutability, and the euphoria of seizing the moment opens with a dusk-'til-dawn spree of inventive mischief and ends with a snort-milk-out-your-nose-hilarious road trip. Though their friendship faltered in adolescence, staid, ironic Quentin has idolized Margo Roth Spiegelman, the enigmatic girl next door, forever. She enlists him for a wildly cathartic night of pranking at the end of their senior year only to disappear the next morning, leaving a breadcrumb trail of obscure clues in her wake. These center on the concept of paper towns, a term used to mean both planned subdivisions ("pseudovisions") that never get built and towns invented by mapmakers to protect a copyright. Both exist only on paper, and this thread of metaphor illuminates the perceived emptiness of the teens' small-town-Florida existence as well as Quentin's growing recognition that he's constructed a mythic Margo who doesn't really exist. As Quentin, his two best friends Ben and Radar, and Margo's confused friend Lacey unravel her plans, they grow closer, imbuing their final days of high school with new meaning. Ultimately, the mystery of Margo proves more compelling than Margo herself -- instead it's the four fumbling detectives, each with their own idiosyncrasies and foibles and secret strengths, who will capture readers' imaginations.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)