- Paper Towns
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Paper Towns 
Author(s) John Green Country United States Language English Genre(s) Young adult novel Mystery Publisher Dutton Books Publication date October 16 2008 Media type Print (Hardback, Paperback) Pages 306 ISBN 978-0-525-47818-8 OCLC Number 202483793 LC Classification PZ7.G8233 Pap 2008 Paper Towns is the third young adult novel by John Green, published in October 2008 by Dutton Books. It debuted at number 5 on the New York Times bestseller list for children's books[1] and was awarded the 2009 Edgar Award for best Young Adult novel.[2]
Contents
Plot summary
Quentin Jacobsen is a seventeen-year-old attending an Orlando-area high school. He has been in love with his childhood best friend, Margo, his entire life. Quentin is an intelligent boy and Margo has a reputation for being tough and cool. When they were nine years old, he and Margo shared a discovery that changed their lives forever. While walking through a park, they found the body of a man named Robert Joyner who had killed himself. Since that night, he and Margo went separate ways. Fortunately, Quentin’s parents are therapists and other than that tragedy long ago, Quentin has lived a balanced and well-adjusted life with few risks and little drama.
A few weeks before high school graduation, Margo appears at Quentin’s window in the middle of the night. She asks him to accompany her on an all-nighter of pranks. Margo is on a litany of revenge that includes spray paint, blackmail, and breaking into Sea World. Quentin thinks that this night will bring him and Margo together again as friends. However, Margo runs away after their adventures.
Quentin turns to his friends Radar and Ben, and to Margo’s friend, Lacey, for help in an attempt to find her. They find clues in Margo's room that lead to an abandoned strip mall. Quentin fears that Margo may have committed suicide. They eventually skip their high school graduation and go on a cross-country trip to find or “save her" after Quentin finds a comment on an Omnictionary post about Agloe, New York, a copyright trap or "paper town." Quentin believes that Margo has left clues in a volume of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass in the hopes that he will find her. They find Margo in Agloe and she reveals to Quentin that the clues were not meant to help him find her but instead to show him the strip mall. Quentin leaves Agloe and says goodbye to Margo until they cross paths one day again.
Characters
- Quentin "Q" Jacobsen - The main character and protagonist of the novel. Throughout the novel, Quentin follows the clues he suspects are left for him by Margo, his missing neighbor.
- Margo Roth Spiegelman - Quentin's love interest and next door neighbor; she disappears, prompting Quentin, Radar, Ben, and Lacey to go on a road trip, missing graduation to find her. She plans out adventures for herself in a black notebook and says that the real fun is in making the plans. Margo and Quentin attend the same high school but do not hang out together at school.
- Marcus "Radar" Lincoln - One of Q's best friends, he constantly edits Omnictionary (a website not unlike Wikipedia). His parents own the world's largest collection of black Santas. He goes on adventures with Quentin to find Margo. Radar is in the school band with Ben.
- Ben Starling - He is one of Quentin's best friends. He goes with Quentin to find Margo.
- Jason "Jase" Worthington- Captain of the football team and Margo's boyfriend. Quentin has never been a fan of Jason, who later befriends Ben after a party in which both Ben and Quentin become popular in the eyes of the school.
- Lacey Pemberton - Margo's friend since Kindergarten (though Margo thinks Lacey has been undermining her) and Ben's girlfriend for roughly the second half of the novel. She goes with Quentin to find Margo.
Reviews
Publishers Weekly noted that, "The title, which refers to unbuilt subdivisions and "copyright trap" towns that appears 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." They also commented that the novel is "another teen pleasing read."[3] Kirkus Reviews praised the novel as "a winning combination".[citation needed]
A School Library Journal review said of the book, "Q is a great social outcast main character who sometimes thinks a little too much, but is completely relatable. Though we only really see Margo for the first third of the book, the clues really create her character and give us the feeling she's a complex person. Finding out who Margo is through the things she left behind was a really great way to develop her character."[4]
Rebecca Swain, reviewing Paper Towns for the Orlando Sentinel, said, "Paper Towns has convinced me that jaded adult readers need to start raiding the Teen's section at the bookstore. Green, who grew up in Orlando and uses the city as a backdrop for the story, taps into the cadence of teenage life with sharp and funny writing, but transcends age with deeper insights."[5]
Booklist awarded Paper Towns a starred review, praising it as "wonderfully witty" and "deeply thoughtful and insightful".[6][7]
Film adaptation
John Green announced on his vlog that the movie rights to Paper Towns have been optioned by Mandate Pictures and Mr. Mudd.[8] Green has completed the first draft of the screenplay.[9] However, on April 2, 2010, John stated on a live-streamed show it was unlikely that the film would be made due to a difference of opinions on "what makes a good movie".
Other editions
The paperback edition of the novel was released on September 22, 2009.[10] The book was also released in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing on May 3, 2010. [11]
Omnictionary
In Paper Towns the characters frequently use a website called Omnictionary - a massively collaborative online encyclopedia similar to Wikipedia. Radar, is obssessed with editting this website in the book. A similar website was created. It contains 1,663 articles, most of which are centered around Paper Towns characters, Nerdfighters and the life of John and Hank Green.
Notes
- ^ "Best Sellers". New York Times. November 2, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/books/bestseller/bestchildren.html. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
- ^ "Edgar Award Winners". Mystery Writers of America. http://www.mysterywriters.org/files/2009_Edgar_Winners.pdf.
- ^ "Paper Towns" (in English). Publisher's Weekly (Dutton): pp. 51. 9-8-08.
- ^ "Paper Towns Review". School Library Journal. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6600222.html?nid=4302&rid=.
- ^ Rebecca Swain (2008-10-11). "Review: Paper Towns by John Green". The Orlando Sentinel. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_books_blog/2008/10/review-paper-to.html.
- ^ http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=2788984
- ^ http://www.sparksflyup.com/papertowns.php
- ^ John Green (2008-10-24). "Paper Towns Movie!!11!!!". http://nerdfighters.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1833893%3ABlogPost%3A1046902.
- ^ March 17, 2009, (at 2:48).
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoSqR_XAU7A
- ^ http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/john+green/paper+towns/6926250/
John Green Fiction - Looking for Alaska (2005)
- An Abundance of Katherines (2006)
- Paper Towns (2008)
- The Fault in Our Stars (2012)
Co-authored Fiction - Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances - with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle (2008)
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan (2010)
Other - Vlogbrothers
Categories:- 2008 novels
- 21st-century American novels
- American young adult novels
- Edgar Award winning works
- Novels set in Florida
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