Best YA Novel I've Read This Year

"Paper Towns" was writen by a smart, smart man. I've heard about John Green before, but this is the first time I've read one of his novels, and I can hardly articulate how impressed I am. He writes flawed, nuanced characters that spout off highly quotable dialogue. In short, this is a book you quite simply need to buy. To elaborate a bit...

The book is divided into three sections. In the first, Margo Roth Spiegelman takes Quentin, our protagonist (who, sidebar, is in love with her) on a crazy, 'spontaneous' journey that changes his life forever. In the second part, Quentin tries to make sense of the events that follow that glorious night. In the third and final part, he goes on a road trip with his friends in order to meet up with Margo. All of this seems rather simple, but it's packed so tight with bittersweet poignancy, insight, and intelligence that you can hardly believe the book is only three-hundred pages long. And really, when a book can incorporate Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" as well as this one did, and offer more insight into Whitman's words than any literary criticism possibly could... what more could you ask for?

The book is just overflowing with ideas, literary references, deep understanding of the way senior year in high school feels, and--most importantly--insight into the way people perceive things. What I love most about Green's writing is that he never has the characters settle on these big, life-changing revelations. When Quentin discovers something vital about understanding life, his finds are often refuted by a new realization, that is later refuted itself. It's a very "in the moment" novel, written about a boy in love with a very "in the moment" girl. I love how there are so many ideas at work here that you never feel talked down to, because Green isn't really giving his readers a message. He's just encouraging them to ponder things in order to, hopefully, connect with one of these ideas. Because, in the end, this intricate and insanely well-written book is just about someone connecting with something else.

9/10

[Thursday, November 20, 2008]

Hilarious and poignant road trip

Quentin "Q" Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman were playmates and next door neighbors until they grew up and grew apart. In high school, Q worships her hotness from afar. Then one night during their senior year, Margo climbs through his bedroom window and back into his life. Dressed like a ninja, she demands he accompany her on a hair-raising escapade. After a night of mischief and mayhem - but no breaking and entering - during which Margo breaks up with her boyfriend, Q actually believes he might have a chance with her. Instead, the next day she disappears.

The mystery of Margo becomes Q's obsession, giving new meaning to the term girl-chasing. Did she join the circus? A-gain? Or get swallowed up in the Big Apple? Or is she just hiding out in a "pseudovision" (abandoned subdivision), watching him? Or was it suicide?

But the biggest question of all is whether the real live Margo can hold a torch to the Margo of Q's imagination. Or does reality bite?

Sprinkled with amazing fun facts and little-known lore, "Paper Towns" is a sometimes hilarious - sometimes poignant road trip through the teenage condition toward self discover.

[Wednesday, November 19, 2008]

Gripping page-turner

Quentin Jacobsen (called "Q" by his buddies) believes everybody gets one miracle. His just happens to be living next door to the girl of his dreams, Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo and Quentin go way back. Even when they were nine years old, Q thought she was the most perfect female on the face of the planet, and they played together in their Pleasantville-like Orlando subdivision. After they found a dead man in the park, Margo appeared outside his window at night to tell him she investigated the dead man. Her diagnosis of why he killed himself: "...all the strings inside him broke..."

Quentin and Margo are now high school seniors. They still live next door to each other but have drifted apart. Quentin is quite the low-key good citizen, while Margo is a true legend. She has learned to play guitar from an old guy in Hot Coffee, Mississippi, traveled with the circus and once maneuvered her way into a famous rock band's backstage gathering.

Prom, finals and graduation loom on the close horizon on what Quentin will call the longest day of his life. Prom is a big discussion in his circle. He is adamantly disinterested in it, but his two best buddies don't share his opinion. Radar will take his new girlfriend, Angela. Ben is frantic to go but has yet to find the right, agreeable "honeybunny."

Quentin is distracted from the discussion when he spies Margo talking with her boyfriend, Jase. He is struck by the way she is laughing, with her mouth stretched wide, and gazing away from Jase. She seems to be staring at her friend Becca. As Quentin strolls nearer, he realizes she isn't really laughing but her mouth continues to remain wide open.

The rest of the day continues on as usual. Q watches the clocks in class and laughs at Ben's life goal (to be in the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS for the "Most Honneybunnies Ever Pleased"). He commiserates with Radar when Angela wonders why she has never been invited to his house. Little does she know that Radar's parents own the world's largest collection of black Santas --- a fact that causes Radar no end of humiliation.

In the evening, Quentin sticks to his usual routine. But his life turns on a dime that night when Margo opens his bedroom window to invite him on an all-night adventure, which turns out to be the most terrifying, thrilling and eye-opening event he ever could hope to experience. When it ends, he pays almost no attention to what Margo says as she hugs him: "I. Will. Miss. Hanging. Out. With. You." His mind is too abuzz with the possibilities of their future relationship, and he's planning what he'll say to her the next day at school. But Margo doesn't show up, and it isn't long before Quentin realizes that not only has she vanished, she has left him clues as to what's become of her.

Quentin cannot resist the challenge. His obsession with finding Margo takes him for a wild road trip that leads to bizarre destinations, including deserted strip malls and abandoned housing developments. But his most unexpected discover is what he finds within himself.

This gripping page-turner from Printz Medalist John Green (author of LOOKING FOR ALASKA and AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES) is both hilarious and thought-provoking. Quentin is an appealing Everyman who manages to become a hero, yet nothing is ever quite as the reader might expect. The plot twists and turns, pulling us in as we careen toward the unpredictable and satisfying conclusion. Very highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

[Tuesday, November 18, 2008]

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