Paper Towns – John Green
Dutton Books
Readers of Green’s previous works An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska will have high expectations for the recently released Paper Towns. Green has been lauded amongst young adult fiction authors for his infallibly relatable, yet complex teenage protagonists and thematically challenging storylines. Paper Towns is yet another success for Green, arguably his best work yet.
Green’s trend of young, awkward male protagonists is continued with Quentin ‘Q’ Jacobsen, a skinny, witty, consistently late senior about to graduate from high school. Q has a couple of loyal – if flawed – best friends, most notably Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo and Q have grown apart since their childhood friendship, and now she is brilliantly adventurous and highly regarded by their peers, while Q is less popular and decidedly tame. Things start to look up during one magnificent night when Margo sneaks into Q’s room and pulls him along on one of her fantastic escapades, and for a few glorious hours Q is allowed a glance into the mysterious Margo’s secret life, which perhaps he can now be a part of.
However all of this changes when Margo disappears the next morning. Her parents are exasperated but unconcerned by yet another episode in a recurrent stream of similar incidents, but Q’s anxieties are not so easily abandoned, particularly when he investigates Margo’s room and discovers the beginnings of a series of clues that seem to have been left specifically for him. It appears Margo wants Q to follow her, but as he does so, he becomes increasingly uncertain of what he will eventually find.
While Q and his best friends are endearing and honest throughout the novel, Margo is the crowning jewel of Paper Towns. The reader is not fully exposed to the depths of her character until near the end of the novel, as Q is forced to expand his limited perspective of the girl he has idolised and idealised since childhood. As Q follows her trail, it becomes clear that Margo is not the person everyone believed she was and she may not even want to be found. The mystery in the novel is carefully developed, finally expanding into a question of identity and perception and how these shape each other. Some of the minor characters – Quentin’s parents, for example – run the risk of collapsing under close examination, and appear to exist more as space-fillers than as genuine individuals, which is disappointing as Green’s characterisation skills are excellent when on form. Other than this small fault, the novel is a great read and will not fail to satisfy his fans.
4/5 – An intelligent and enjoyable read, appropriate for young adult audiences without being condescending or clichéd.
Spencer Dowson
