Representation

One of my favorite books of all time is Paper Towns by John Green, likely because I grew up reading all sorts of fiction/fantasy and adventure books that the first time I read a John Green book, it was unlike any other I had read before. John Green as an author is most known for writing The Fault in Our Stars and other books in the coming-of-age genre, but truly I think Paper Towns was the one that best represented real teenagers and the unique lives they live. However, I will note, I think part of the reason this book speaks to me so much is that it does take place in Florida, just in 2008.

Mainly, the book's main character is a teenage boy named Quentin who is enamored by his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, who is the rebellious and bold type girl, and one day goes missing. However, Quentin believes she has left her clues for him to go find her.

Quentin doesn't just go on a physical journey to find her, but also an emotional journey where he explores what life really means to him and addresses the fears with growing up or having to enter the "real world" after living all his life in the perfect little suburb, where everyone is the same and nothing ever changes: a paper town.

What is most beautifully written are the dialogue and analogies John Green incorporates into the novel and then makes it a running theme. At the beginning of the novel, Margo introduces the idea of a Paper Town, a place so fake there's no meaning to any of it because everyone living in them drone on in their same boring lives so that their children can live the same boring lives for their children. However, this perspective is exactly what any young person that feels trapped may feel, focusing on the negative and yearning for something new, exciting, and different.

Quentin is then able to make his own reflection towards the end of the novel, and it comes from a place of gratitude and growth. He is able to realize that the people around him don't define him, and he finds exactly what he needs to do in that moment, which is just live and enjoy the memories. The way John Green is able to write this into the story using mature and well thought themes and ideas, also while including insanely stupid but hilarious teenage shenanigans like going on a 21-hour non-stop road trip. He is able to demonstrate truthfully the duality of teenager life, between the growth into adulthood vs the attachment to the joys of childhood and how it's completely normal and okay to be utterly lost and confused, because we're just finding our way. Thank you, John Green, for telling the story of two kids from a Paper Town and how they become more than just Paper People.  

- A girl from a Paper Town