Dear Peers,

I just finished re-reading one of my favorite books, Paper Towns, a realistic fiction novel written by John Green. The author of some of the most popular books, including, The Fault In Our Stars, and Looking For Alaska. With these two books he won an Printz award in 2006. Paper Towns is also well known for the motion picture along with the book. This movie caught a lot of people’s eyes which had them pick up the book. I chose to re-read this book after watching the movie. I had first discovered of Paper Towns as the movie. This is one of those book that no matter how many times you read the book, it never gets old. The author’s writing is eye catching, everytime I read the book, I discover something new about his writing.

Paper Towns is about two teenagers, Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth. Margo is an adventurous mysterious girl who Q has spent his whole life time loving over everything she does. When Margo climbs into Q’s room and into his life campaigning a plan for revenge, he follows. After pulling an all-nighter, doing things beyond horizien, a new day breaks as Q arrives to school to see a no show from Margo. Q soon realizes there are clues, and they’re for him. What will happen to Quentin as he adventures past his limits and learns the side or Margo he thought he would never see?

The main character, Margo, was very well developed, I loved her personally. The author made her character shy, mysterious, and highly intelligent. I don’t get why the author did not include more than just two characters, the book was mainly based around just the two of them. The storyline was still fluent, It would have been nice to see a different character’s perspective. I believe the theme of this book is to go out of your comfort zone and try new things. I say this because the entire book is based around Q, how he isn’t as adventurous as Margo. The message comes across clear.

This passage takes place at the very end of the book, (the last page), where Q and Margo are back home after Q’s journey of discovering Margo and himself. John Green wrote,

“I feel her hands on my back. And it is dark as I kiss her, but I have my eyes open and so does Margo. She is close enough to me that I can see her, because even now there is the outward sign of the invisible light, even at night in this parking lot on the outskirts of Agloe. After we kiss, our foreheads touch as we stare at each other. Yes, I can see her almost perfectly in this cracked darkness.” (pg 305)

This is my favorite piece of writing not just it’s at the end of the story, but the comparison between the beginning and the end of the story. This book started out as Q not understanding Margo and everything she dares to do in her free time. This passage explains how Q can finally see through her and how she thinks. When he says “invisible” light, that means the light he can see now compared to before. I rate this book a 10 out of 10. This book has a inspirational theme that is important to our everyday lives.

Kayleigh Riccio