Paper Towns, by John Green posted by Mrs. Camden

Paper Towns, by John Green

I thoroughly enjoy John Green's style of writing. His male main characters are educated and have such a wit that makes me grin at many of the things they 'say'! Paper Towns reminded me of Looking for Alaska in that the object of Q's affection was a much-sought-after girl who felt lost and misunderstood, just like Pudge's Alaska felt underappreciated and hopeless. Similarly, both girls -- Margo and Alaska -- presented a facade of confidence and free-spiritedness (<-- word?), while internally they simply wanted an escape in some form or another. I have to say, though, that Margo struck me as self-centered. Around page 294, with only 11 pages left in the book, I had to stop reading for the night because I was so disgusted (too harsh?) by Margo's behavior and lack of concern for the feelings of others! I'm glad, though, that I finished the remaining 11 pages because I ''saw" Q mature in only a matter of hours -- won't say how at the risk of revealing the ending to other readers.

Favorite passage out of book: " . . . .each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And these things happen -- these people leave us, or don't love us, or don't get us, or we don't get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack open, the end becomes inevitable . . . But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And it's only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs . . . we were just looking at ideas of each other . . . But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out."
Makes me want to say, "Kudos for hard times!" haha! You go, Q.!!!