Quentin “Q” Jacobsen is a fairly average, if overly anxious teenager. He has lived next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman for most of his life, and been in love with her for as long as he can remember. Margo is one of the most popular girls in school, has a nearly legendary reputation. Of course, she also barely seems to know that Quentin or his friends Ben and Radar exist, but that doesn’t stop Quentin from dreaming of her from afar. So when Margo climbs in his bedroom window one evening, less than a month from their high school graduation, saying she needs his help to enact an elaborate revenge plan, he feels compelled to assist her.
Quentin ends the evening exhausted, but exhilarated, convinced that when he arrives at school the next day, everything will be different and for his last month in school, Margo’s actually going to be part of his circle of friends. But Margo never does return to school and initially appears to have disappeared without a trace. Her parents are at their wits’ end and pretty much threaten to disown her. Quentin becomes obsessed with the idea that she’s left clues before she disappeared, and that she wants someone to find her. As Quentin continues to search for Margo, enlisting the aid of his and her friends, they discover that Margo was a lot more secretive and mysterious than any of them expected. As they proceed on their quest for the lost girl, while adjusting to the end of high school and anticipating the future, there are arguments and adventure, revelations and an epic road trip.
When I realised that the film adaptation of Paper Towns was going to be in cinemas here soon, I decided that I’d best get round to reading the book that had been on my shelf for over a year. For a very long time, I was pretty sure that this was merely an ok book, until the last third or so, when Quentin and three others race across the country on an epic road trip to possibly find Margo before she disappears forever. More here.
I really felt when I read this one earlier this year that this may be the strongest ensemble that Green has written of what I’ve read of his so far. I agree with your assessment of Q and the middle third emphatically.
How was the movie? I’m tempted to see it when it comes out, but I have reservations.
In some ways, the book did stuff better. In most ways, I think the film adaptation was better – it shortens Q’s self-pity-party in the second half a lot. It still has the great friendship moments, and coming of age experiences, while maybe not dealing quite as much with the deconstruction of the MPDG, because that wouldn’t have fit so well in the film. I saw it in a free preview screening (complete with a super sweet pre-recorded message from John Green for the Norwegian audience thanking them for reading his books and enjoying the adaptations- I assume that may be part of the cinema release too) . Not sure I would have paid full price to see it in the cinema, but at a matinee, sure.