This book is a bit shit eh? We can forgive the fact that it is a young adult novel so that it may lack the maturity. It does not demand that from the reader. Having said that, the premise of the book bothers me — privileged young people who can leave home in a whim without as much as a whimper from their parents. Boy chasing girl who’s actually toxic as fuck, and knowing deep down it’s not gonna work out anyway. There’s a whole lot of young adult tropes here that made me glad that I’m a 36 year old embittered man than a simp who’d do all the biddings of somebody who friendzoned me a long time ago.
What’s so special about Margo anyway?
The kid in question is Quentin, better known as Q, who’s all in all a pretty average kid in high school. Him and his two mates are about to graduate — Ben and Radar. I can’t tell you much about Ben, aside from the fact that he’s a bit self-centred and drives a shitty car that often won’t start. Radar is a black Wikipedia (but not Wikipedia for copyright reasons) admin who correct facts online for fun. Radar’s got a missus but Q and Ben are obsessed with girls, especially now that the prom is coming up and they’ve got no dates.
Q is in love with his neighbour, Margo who he had known since he was a kid. Earlier on when they were still kids, they found a dead body together. As they “mature”, Margo became her own and her whimsy took over — travelling with a circus for a while and escaping to who knows where to the grief of her parents. Q just became plain and boring, sometimes bullied but mostly surviving the tribulations of high school life. One night Margo knocked on his window to bring him into a self-serving and self-righteous adventure as she takes revenge on the people who wronged her or who she thought wronged her.
The next day Margo disappears mysteriously, leaving faint clues for Q to pick up, and in the meanwhile also wrecking the final months of Q’s graduation year. The rest of the book is Q’s search for the missing Margo, with the help of his friends and new friends made along the way.
Definitely not my high school experience
I grew up in Australia and I went to an all boys school. So I really cannot relate even when I was a teenager on how I interacted with girls. I guess going to a single sex school does that to you. But in some level I can understand Q’s relationship with Margo. He wants to read the books she reads, he is more than willing to uncover the clues she left him while picking up an education in literature along the way. I guess at some point in your youth, you’d do anything for a girl.
But for the rest of his interactions, such as with his friends — on paper it looks ordinary enough, but never once during my reading that I felt that it was real. The dialogues between Q and his friends, the popular kids and even his parents are cringe, and cringeworthy dialogues ALWAYS detract you away from the story. I was hoping that Green might pull a rabbit out of a hat not to make the interactions cringeworthy, but they are. At the same time, Green doesn’t shy away with things that teenagers do at that age — like having sex, or getting drunk, so there is that realistic element. clap. clap.
*Sigh* Margo *Shakes head*
It bothers me that as Margo disappears into thin air, leaving a trail of irreparable damage, much of it which she inflicted the night before she left. This also impacted Quentin as he misses out on graduation, spending prom in a drug den of an abandoned mini-mall obsessing over Margo and took his attention away from his exams to put his academic life at risk. What bothers the most is how Green built her to be this enigmatic, interesting and nuanced character when all she is, is really a fucking cunt.
We all had been in relationships where we are the simp, and the other person just leads you on either knowingly or unknowingly, but the damage is done. And this is a shame as I couldn’t care less about Margo even after she goes AWOL. But perhaps this is the intention. Green’s message in the book is that the journey is the thing, the destination is bound to disappoint. The final reveal when we found the truth about Margo is the biggest mehhh of a reveal since I read Dick’s Man in a High Castle. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the ride that is the reading of the book either.
Paper Towns is flimsy as the paper it’s printed on
The book somehow managed to turn me off Leaves of Grass, a work that I feel strongly about. We can say that a book is not meant for us, and it will be more relatable for readers of the character’s age. But I disagree with this. There is a universal appeal in books which can transcend generations and genre, it is what separates the good books from the average, the good and the bad. Or perhaps, I’m expecting a beef wellington from a McDonald’s again.
