Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Living next door to this gorgeous but mysterious girl, Quentin had no chance against falling in love with her. So when she tumbles through his window and calls for a driver in a revenge mission against her cheating boyfriend, he has no choice but to follow her around the city after dark. From the very off-set, this story was so very funny while being clever and insightful. It also managed to be slightly terrifying at times when Margo's clues looked hopeless.

As with all John Green's novels, he gave us such great characters, from thoughtful Q to loud Ben, from sweet Lacey to adventurous Margo. I adored the relationship the boys had; typical boys didn't talk feelings much but obviously cared for each other, and each bought something unique to their search, even if it was just to be comic relief or being disgusting. As for Margo, my God she was an evil genius! I wish I was that clever! I laughed out loud at her pulling her revenge pranks with Q. She was a complete mystery and while I loved watching the gang piece together the clues to where she could have gone, I couldn't help but think she was being incredibly selfish leaving everything behind with no goodbye.

Masquerading as a normal YA contemporary, this book was a whirlwind of emotions that I have come to expect from Green's stories. From its characters to its nicely complex plot, I loved it from start to finish. It raised moral issues that everyone deals with, like the need to leave and start over, as well as seemingly normal things like road trips, random brushes with death and figuring out the enigma that is another person. It was beautifully constructed and cleverly written; I can never get tired of John Green's novels.

Published 3rd May 2010 by Bloomsbury.