Green melds elements from his Looking
for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines— the impossibly
sophisticated but unattainable girl, and a life-altering road trip—for another
teen-pleasing read. Weeks before graduating from their Orlando-area high
school, Quentin Jacobsen's childhood best friend, Margo, reappears in his life,
specifically at his window, commanding him to take her on an all-night, score-settling
spree. Quentin has loved Margo from not so afar (she lives next door), years
after she ditched him for a cooler crowd. Just as suddenly, she disappears
again, and the plot's considerable tension derives from Quentin's mission to
find out if she's run away or committed suicide. Margo's parents, inured to her
extreme behavior, wash their hands, but Quentin thinks she's left him a clue in
a highlighted volume of Leaves of Grass. Q's sidekick, Radar, editor of
a Wikipedia-like Web site, provides the most intelligent thinking and fuels
many hilarious exchanges with Q. The title, which refers to unbuilt
subdivisions and copyright trap towns that appear on maps but don't exist,
unintentionally underscores the novel's weakness: both milquetoast Q and self-absorbed
Margo are types, not fully dimensional characters. Readers who can get past
that will enjoy the edgy journey and off-road thinking.
Similar to what I said for the other John Green book, I enjoyed this one and think it's more appropriate than some of his other books to assign as mandatory reading; however, I don't think it has quite the substance or quality of some of the other choices.
ReplyDeleteI concur with Handley. I enjoyed this one, though the plot dragged at points. Several times I thought my audiobook must be near the very end, and found I had much, much longer to go on the adventure. There was an interesting central metaphor about "paper towns" and "paper people" and the main character is fun and likeable. It has some funny turns of phrases, good adventure, and some meaningful themes. I could see choosing this if we didn't have other options, but it's not a stand-out that has me shouting: "This is the one!"
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