Book Review: Paper Towns

Paper Towns

by John Green

Summary

Quentin Jacobsen, Q, has been next door neighbors to Margo Roth Spiegelman since they were two years old. The eighteen year old live in Orland, Florida in a subdivision named Jefferson Park, where everything is named Jefferson from the street signs to the parks. Q and Margo are polar opposites now that they are attending Winter Park High School, but they used to be friends because their parents were cordial with one another.

Margo is an independent, abstract thinker and very popular at school. Q is in band and has two close friends, Radar and Ben, who he keeps to himself with. As seniors of WPHS, all of Q's friends and classmates have one thing on their mind: prom. Q has no intention of attending prom.

Years ago, Margo had come to Q's window one evening, and she soon does it again. When she sneaks into his window in the wee hours of the morning, she informs him that she needs to borrow his car because her parents took her keys. Margo's parents are very strict, and rightfully because she always runs away or gets into bad things. Q's parents are both therapists and consider him to be the best child on planet earth.

Margo insists that if Q will not give her the keys, that he come with her on her night adventure. She has eleven things to accomplish by the end of the night. Margo is out to seek revenge on the ones that hurt her most. Her boyfriend, Jase Worthington, has been cheating on her with her best friend, Becca, for six weeks now.

As the two drive around Orlando, they complete all eleven of Margo's needs. They pick up supplies from Publix and Walmart and then begin their trek. Margo has Q call Becca's father in the middle of the night to let him know that his daughter is having sex in the basement. Before that, Margo put a club around Jase's steering wheel so that he could not get away. When Jase bolts, Q snags a picture of him with his penis hanging out of his boxers. The two put a dead fish in Becca's clothes and spray paint an M on her wall. Next, a bouquet of tulips and apologies letter is left on Karen's front steps due to a misunderstanding that occurred. Jase got a fish through the front window of his house and a spray painted M on his wall. Lacey received a fish in her car, squished under a seat, and a spray painted M on the roof of her car, this time done by Q and not Margo.

They finally head to the SunTrust building downtown to admire the havoc they have created throughout the city. Here is where Margo dubs her famous paper towns saying. Margo talks about how fake everyone in this city is, how fake the buildings are, and how she doesn't want to stay here and deal with it all. Not in a suicidal way, Margo tried to let Q know that she would be fine.

Almost completing the list, Margo asks Q to choose a victim, and he chooses Chuck Parson, a long time bully of him and his friends. Even though Margo has had him lay some slack on Q for the time being, he still irritates Q, Ben, and Radar. The two break into his house and put Veet on his right eyebrow, taking it clean off right before he wakes up. They run out and head to the last thing on the list.

Margo has broken into every other park in Orlando, except SeaWorld, and she chose that night to take Q with her to do so. The two get caught, get out of the mess, and finally leave SeaWorld and head home, just in time to wake up and get ready for school and not have their parents find out about their little adventure.

Q is ecstatic about his night with Margo, and the next day at school he brags to Radar and Ben about the evening. Chuck decided to shave off his other eyebrow, leaving the school in chaos as the others talk about what happened to their cars or houses the night before. Margo was nowhere to be seen at school.

By Saturday, Margo's crazy parents, Q's parents and Detective Warren are sitting at the kitchen table, looking for answers about Margo's location. The last thing she told Q was that she was going to miss not hanging out with him anymore, but Q never thought it meant that she was going to runaway. After discussions with the Detective, he told Q not to worry and that she would be home one way or another.

Margo's parents, especially her mom, are fed up with her antics and do not want her to return. They start to go on about how Margo leaves little clues or hints behind when she runs away in hopes of being found. Here is when Q realizes that he might be able to find her after waiting a few more days.

With two weeks left of school, Ben and Radar snag dates to prom, and Q finds a poster attached to the blinds of Margo's window, prompting him to investigate the start of the clues. Q goes through a series of clues, some harder than the others, that lead him all around Orlando. Cleverly put together, Q had no idea how intuitive and intelligent Margo really was.

The boys cut school the next day and make it out to a pseudovision, a run down subdivision in the projects, for the next clue but cannot find her. As graduation rolls around, Q finds out that Margo has been living in the fictional New York town of Agloe. Initially it was thought she was in New York because of her clues, but we soon find out that is not the case.

In an old barn in Agloe, Margo has made her self at home, not wanting to be found, but rather leaving clues to let Q she is safe. She is unhappy that they came to "save" her because she never wanted to be saved.

After Margo explains what an egotistical boy he is, Q says that she should go to New York anyways. Margo invites him to come along, but Q knows he cannot join her because of his admission to Duke and his family responsibilities. Margo promises to keep in touch with Q.

Book Trailer

Since made into a movie, the best trailer was of one done by 20th Century Fox.

Themes

Change, Identity, Dissatisfaction, Friendship, Loss, Exploring, and Perseverance.

Similar Themed Books

Going Bovine by Libba Bray, The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson, If I Stay by Gayle Forman.

Other Books by John Green

Green has written five other books. Two of his books have been made into movies, and in 2005 Paramount Pictures optioned the film rights.

Teaching Ideas

Penguin Classroom has a wonderful set of classroom lesson plans for a majority of John Green's novels. I really enjoyed the chapter six lesson plan over entering the SunTrust Building where Margo and Q spend time looking at the Orlando, Florida skyline.

Start off by asking the following questions to spark interest and ideas:

• Why would two individuals break into a building to look at a skyline?
• Have you ever seen a skyline in the day time? Night time? What was the difference between seeing them at the different points in time?
• What mood words can you use to describe how Margo and Q felt while looking out on the skyline? How many of those words do you agree with?

Idea 1

Compare Margo and Q’s differing reactions to looking out at Orlando from the conference room at the top of the SunTrust Building.

Correlating Questions

• How does each character feel about what s/he sees?
• Why does each character feel this way?

Idea 2

Consider the symbolic and thematic implications of Margo saying, “It’s a paper town. I mean look at it, Q: look at all those cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I’ve lived here for eighteen years and I’ve never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters (57-58).”

Correlating Questions

• How does Margo’s assessment of Orlando as a “paper town” relate to the research students did on copyright traps during the pre-reading activity?
• Why does Margo see Orlando as a false place filled with false people?
• Why does she see everyone and everything as in-genuine?
• How does Margo see herself as different from all of the places and inhabitants inherent to her hometown?
• How does Margo’s assessment of Orlando and the people who live there compare with students’ assessments of their own hometowns and the people who live there?

Idea 3

Consider the symbolic and thematic implications of Margo saying, “I just hate myself so much for even caring about my, quote, friends... But it was the last string. It was a lame string, for sure, but it was the one I had left, and every paper girl needs at least one string, right?” (58).

Correlating Questions

• In saying this, how does Margo compare herself to the dead man from the prologue?
• How might this quote foreshadow later events in the novel?
• What does Margo plan to do upon the completion of her elaborate plan?

Have students draw a skyline of any city, real or fake, and in each building have them write assessments of their hometown in one color and assessments of Orland, Florida in another color. Compare and contrast the differences between the city in the book and that of their own.