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Paper Towns | 
 enlarge | Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
Buy New: $10.78
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New (43) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $9.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 1737
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 0525478183
EAN: 9780525478188
ASIN: 0525478183
Publication Date: October 16, 2008
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Condition: Brand new Book, ALL days Low Price !
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Product Description
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the nightdressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revengehe follows her. Margos always planned extravagantly, and, until now, shes always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And theyre for Q. Printz Medalist John Green returns with the trademark brilliant wit and heart-stopping emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 The Best by John Green so far! November 17, 2008
Paper Towns mostly takes place in Orlando, Florida. The setting is described in a way any teenager would talk about growing up in their home town: They find it boring and look forward to making there own fun or trouble. Q, or Quentin, is a bit obsessed with fellow classmate and neighbor Margo Roth Speigelman. A girl who Q and friends are finding to be more of a mystery by the day.
The story is about realizing you never really know a person, you just think you do. The plot's similar to another of John Green's books, Looking For Alaska, but done in a different light - as more of a quest, where Alaska was about a learning experience. To find the mystery that is Margo, Q goes on a scavenger hunt. Literally, and you can follow the clues along with Q to find Margo. I think the characters and setting feel pretty natural and will sit well with teens.
This is a book not just for teens, though. It will be enjoyable for adults as well. There are some strong language and sexuality explicit scenes, but not as bad a as Looking for Alaska. It is a book with a lot of humor, mystery and intrigue. I highly recommend it.
 not my favorite November 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a hard review to write because I am such a fan of John Green. I loved Looking for Alaska and Abundance of Katherines is one of my favorite all time books--so of course I was excited to be able to review this book.
I'm sorry to say, I just never got hooked into this story. Most of all because I never could get into the main character--I just didn't feel a strong voice from him, he had no unique personality, and I never felt a reason to care about him. The other problem was his mission--he suddenly turns his whole life upside down to chase after a girl he has barely spoken to in almost 10 years. I just didn't get it. I also didn't get what was so great about her that he would need to chase her--I never felt the bond that he supposedly had for her.
As for the other characters in the book, the only one I really liked--the only one that felt real--was Radar. He was interesting and well drawn. The rest were just stereotypes or unreal. Ben, his other best friend, was completely ridiculous with his honeybunnies and ginormous balls. Give me a break. Why mega-popular Lacey would even fall for him was completely unbelievable. Q's parents were also one-dimensional. Every scene with the parents was just something like 'we love you' or 'we think you're great'. I never saw him do anything great--do they never not get along?
I hate to be so negative because Green is such a wonderful writer. There were many great lines in this book like when they blast their car stereo and open the windows so everyone will know what great taste in music they have--that is so perfectly teen. I also loved learning about "paper towns" a term I've never heard of.
Anyway, judging by the other reviews I am obviously in the minority in my opinion but there it is.
 Looking for Orlando November 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Though a poor stepsister to his Printz Award-winning LOOKING FOR ALASKA, John Green's PAPER TOWNS follows a similar formula and will no doubt captivate both established fans and many new ones. Again we have a femme-almost-fatale, this time by the name of Margo Roth Spiegelman. As the book's irresistible hook, Green writes a long scene where Margo and her starry-eyed wing man, Quentin Jacobsen, wreak havoc on Spielgelman's high school senior enemies in suburban Orlando. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and all that.
Also Alaska-like, Margo no sooner makes her mark when she up and disappears. The difference, however, is that readers don't get to know Margo as well or as deeply as they do Alaska in Green's debut novel. From here, we are left to follow the clues with Q, a boy on a mission to track his love (or "crush" might better describe it). Among his most important clues is Walt Whitman's poem, "Leaves of Grass" (English majors take note).
Although this search is protracted and perhaps not all that intriguing, the novel is in good hands. Why? With Margo out of sight, Green treats us to a "buddy bonding" book of sorts. Q's best friend, Ben Starling, and his other best friend, Radar, take what looks like a plot novel in the offing and turn it into a characterization novel that's not only funny but spot-on to the way guys talk (to each other, to girls, and to their computers). By the time the Margo plot resurfaces, the sub-plot revolving around the guys has practically trumped it. Overall, this is an enjoyable outing -- part light mystery, part road book, part novel of (ill) manners. It all adds up to a worthwhile read.
Another well written YA novel from Green November 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Following up on the success of his award-winning Young Adult novels, Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, John Green next provides us with "Paper Towns." I can most concisely describe Towns as a story about two people: high school "nerd," Quentin Jacobsen, and the object of his infatuation - the popular Margo Roth Spiegelman, a quirky and attractive senior who Quentin has lived next door to his whole life, but does not interact with, until one day when Margo decides to finally make Quentin the object of her attention by leading him on a series of adventures throughout the town of Orlando, Florida.
I have not read "Katherines" yet, but I have read "Alaska," and even though it is labeled a "Young Adult" novel and I am far beyond that classification, it is still one of my favorite books (but not in a creepy "why is that guy in the YA section of the bookstore" kind of way). It is one of my favorites because Green has a very descriptive writing style and a way of creating very well developed characters that elicit an emotional reaction from his readers. If you're familiar with "Alaska," you'll recognize this again, and that is because I almost felt like I was reading the same book. The protagonists are incredibly similar. I didn't necessarily feel like I was reading the same book, but I did have a very strong sense of deja vu. Almost as if "Paper Towns" was written by a John Green in an alternate dimension. This John Green is exactly the same as our John Green in every single way, with the exception that he has a goatee (which of course makes him evil). That is because, in the real world, you don't often encounter girls like Alaska and Margo. In the six years I spent in high school I can't recall ever noticing a teenage girl who is strong, attractive, popular, self-reliant, emotional, adventurous, and also crazy. Oh sure, I knew plenty of "crazy" girls. But I'm talking about "let's pretend I'm pregnant to see if he really loves me" crazy, while Green's women are "I'm going to climb to the top of the Eiffel tower in the middle of the night and bungee jump while eating a triple cheeseburger" crazy. Those kind of women just don't exist in the real world, and I had a lot of trouble suspending my disbelief in a character like Margo Roth Spiegelman. She is just too out there. If she was a "band geek" like Quentin, I might be ale to buy it, but the fact that she is apparently one of the most beautiful and popular girls in school is just too much for me. A girl like Margo would have extreme difficulty in high school because she wouldn't fit into one of the typical molds that unfortunately, most people are stereotyped into. Also, I have a big problem with whoever signed off on the book cover. The girl on the cover does NOT fit my image of Margo. She is just not attractive enough, and was a source of so much distraction I had to remove it while reading. Why force an image of her onto the reader at all? I think it would have been a much better idea to let the reader use their own imagination in this instance and I feel as if this was a big flaw that the editor let get by them.
The above issues aside, I found "Paper Towns" a very enjoyable and extremely easy read. Green's nerd power definitely comes through in his characters, and those familiar with his Brotherhood 2.0 project will feel a strong sense of familiarity between this novel and his YouTube videos. I can't compare Towns to Alaska at all, simply because I felt that the ending was a little underwhelming, and focused too much on introspection for a novel aimed at young adults. At times Quentin and Margo talk way too much like 50-year old erudites than high school kids, and the book and plot is a little too "lofty" to believe in, but maybe that is part of the appeal Green's books have with older readers and why I don't think they should be limited to the young adult section of bookstores.
Brillant! November 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
John Green really gets your attention in this book! He's a great writer for teens. You can't put down this book at all! Who doesn't like a great mystery/romance/hilarious novel?
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