Paper Towns By John Green

“Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.” The realistic fiction young adult novel Paper Towns by John Green takes place in the subdivision of Jefferson Park in Orlando, Florida. The main character Margo Roth Spiegelman creates countless mysteries. Late one night, Quentin Jacobsen, the narrator, is awoken by Margo’s figure standing in his window. She jumps into his bedroom and invites him along on an adventure. The night is filled with graffiti, dead catfish, hair removal cream, and Seaworld. Quentin is reminded of his childhood friendship with Margo and develops strong feelings for her. The next morning, she’s gone. Weeks after

Out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, Quentin Jacobsen, the quiet kid with therapists for parents, and Margo Roth Spiegelman, a curious and daring girl ended up living next door to each other. At the age of nine, Margo and Quentin bike to their local park and discover a dead man leaning against an oak tree. Flash forward eight years, and both Quentin and Margo are a few weeks from graduating high school. Stories of Margo’s crazy adventures are always the hottest topic at school, and boys, including Quentin, can’t help but fall in love with the girl they’re constantly hearing about. In the words of Quentin, “I always got nervous whenever I heard that Margo was about to show up, on account of how she was the most fantastically gorgeous creature that God has ever created.” As discovered later in the novel, people are different than the expectations other people have of them. Margo disappears after she and Quentin spend the night vandalizing cars, breaking into buildings, and “making things even”. Soon, Quentin discovers a trail of clues left for him. Along with his friends, Quetin ditches graduation in order to finally get answers to the questions he had been wondering ever since her disappearance. When he solves the final piece to her puzzle, Quentin discovers that he had been wrong about the person he thought Margo was. In fact,

Both characters, Quentin and Margo, have grown apart and lead two completely separate lives. Quentin spends most of his days on the computer, gaming with his two best friends, Ben and Radar. Margo lives her life as a mystery, and for the small amount of time she is in school, she spends with her two picture perfect and popular best friends, Lacey and Becca. Although Lacey is a good person at heart, she’s brutally honest with Margo about her imperfections and causes Margo to resent her after she didn’t tell her Becca was the one Jase (Margo’s now ex boyfriend) was cheating on her with. I believe that the author does an exceptional job with creating these characters because they have many layers but are easily understood, they are relatable, and they make the same mistakes and have the same impulses as the average teenager. Quentin, like many other boys his age, creates a completely different and unrealistic version of Margo in his head and as a result, Margo is pressured to live up to these unfair expectations. Everyone had their own individual ideas of her that they knew and loved, “But there she is, and I am watching her through the Plexiglas, and she looks like Margo Roth Spiegelman, this girl I have known since I was two--this girl who was an idea that I loved.” No one knew the true Margo. Eventually, Margo’s “strings” break and she plots her