It Is So Hard To Leave-Until You Leave. And Then It Is The Easiest Goddammed Thing In The World

Quentin Jacobsen is 3 weeks away from graduating high school. He has dealt with the harassment from the popular crew, video gamed with his two best friends, and loved Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. On the night Margo climbs through his window with an all night adventure of revenge and thrills planned, Q begins to feel hopeful that maybe things can change. 
However, the next day he discovers Margo has run away, but she leaves a string of clues behind.  When no one goes looking, Q makes it his mission to read the clues carefully so he can be the one to bring her home. The clues include old records, graffiti walls, and Walt Whitman's poem Song of Myself. Throughout the last weeks of school, Q accomplishes much more for himself, and others, than just figuring out the clues Margo has left. But does she want to be found, and can he accept what he might discover if he does find her again?

 While I was reading John Green's Paper Towns, I noted how familiar it was to his other coming of age story, Looking for Alaska. And although I have not jumped on the teen bandwagon yet,  I am going to go out on a limb and say that it has a similar feel to A Fault in Our Stars. It seems all of these stories have a similar theme, characters, and overall ending with a very familiar moral.
However similar it may be, I was able to connect to the characters in a way that made me want to keep the adventure going.
In Q's journey you want to smack him upside the head while screaming, "Just leave her be, you idiot!" However, after finishing and having a chance to digest the novel, it wasn't about getting the girl; it was about the journey. Q and his friends are at a golden age where there is a door closing, yet so many opportunities laid out for them. Margo rejects these opportunities and chooses her own path on her own terms. Q is almost unable to deal with this idea. He has this complete picture of "saving her", "being with her", and "fixing things", but as a reader you start to wonder if he will be disappointed by the end result. Q has to come to terms with his high school door closing, and he needs to accept the change going forward; perhaps Margo is not willing to accept the change in herself.

Green creates these male characters who have to come to life realizations on their own, but not until they deal with this strong female figure. I love this idea, and the story is more relate-able because the pull you feel to the characters is more genuine and real. Some aspects to the story are a little outlandish: Can readers really believe that two high school kids have the ability to break into SeaWorld at night, no. But Margo is an interesting character who shows strength in a different way, which leads to this obsession Q has for her, and later on, shows him the strength he has inside.
I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because when it comes down to it, I liked Looking for Alaska a little better. I liked the idea of finding your way out of your own labyrinth, and even though there is more adventure in this novel, there was just something about Alaska that I liked better than Margo. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely a feel good read as well; I read it quickly, and I was completely entertained with the high school antics going on throughout the pages. And yes, there are laugh out loud funny pieces of dialogue, so that is always a fun ride.
Green's writing also amazes me because there are so many thought provoking quotations that you can take away. His novels, at least the two I have read, are about real problems, real change, and dealing with real loss. His characters grow, and that is the most heart warming part, no matter what your view is of teen fiction.

~What a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than a person~