They could also try King Dork by Frank Portman and Submarine by Joe Dunthorne. If they like the look of Paper Towns, they might also enjoy Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan, a Bookbag favourite. My thanks to the nice people at Bloomsbury for sending the book. Even so, I think it's probably a book for the clever, introspective teen, who will absolutely love it.Īnd look! Omnictionary even has a real, live, website. But it's so smart and sharp and funny and kind and wise, you can forgive Green these faults without a second thought. Quentin does a bit too much navel-gazing, even for my liking. There are some plot-friendly but character-unlikely hook ups, and here I'm particularly thinking of Lacey falling for Ben - I don't think so! The middle section drags on a bit and the madcap drive across country at the end drags on even more, making it more 'oh, hurry UPPPP' than actually madcap. Green writes wonderfully: his observation is pitch perfect, fabulous one-liners fill paragraph after paragraph, and he captures the teen psyche with unerring skill.

I don't believe any of us are paper people and the lovely thing about this book is the way in which its characters come to see this. It's about how the different facets of ourselves sometimes pull apart, and sometimes come together, and how our interactions with others can shape us. It's about how well we know ourselves, and to what extent we can ever truly know another person. It can also mean a copyright trap on a map - as Quentin finds out. The book's title, paper towns, refers an American term for suburbs planned but not built. But Q thinks she's left him clues in a marked-up volume of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and he's determined to find her, no matter what the cost.

Margo has run away before, several times, and her parents have simply had enough. until she fails to turn up for school the next day. Why she chose Q to be her partner is a mystery, but he hopes it will lead to something more. Let down by a cheating boyfriend, she takes Q on a night of revenge, as they play pranks on everyone that let her down. Q languishes in the middle ranks with his band member mates, Radar, who's an obsessive editor of Omnictionary (read Wikipedia), and Ben, who wants a girlfriend more than anything, but lacks the status to get one.Īnd then, one night, Margo knocks at Q's window. It's an unrequited love though - neighbours and childhood friends they may be, but their respective places in the High School pecking order are miles apart. Witty, sharply-observed, quotable and cerebral, it's one for the clever, introspective teen, who will love it.ġ7-year-old Quentin Jacobsen has been in love with Margo Roth Spiegelmen ever since he can remember. Summary: Flawed but fabulous leftfield story about identity and connections.

Paper towns john green book buy