Interlude: Paper Towns by John Green

I first discovered John Green a few years ago when someone somewhere linked to his brother Hank's video/song about Harry Potter. This led me to the Brotherhood 2.0 project, an amazing YouTube experiment. The Green brothers decided that for one year they would outlaw text messaging and e-mail, communicating through video instead. In addition to being hilarious and bringing me hours of nerdy amusement (if you clicked on that link you know it's a nerd-licious time over there), this project introduced me to John Green the Fabulous YA Author.

Since then, I've read three of his novels: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. All have similar themes ("coming-of-age adventures" doesn't do the books justice at all, but it's all I seem to have right now), but Paper Towns is definitely my favourite. To give you a quick synopsis, here is a quick synopsis from the back cover copy:

Who is the real Margo? Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs 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 the girl he thought he knew....
(Speak, an imprint of Penguin Group.)

Sounds good, n'est pas? There are a few things I really love about this book. First of all, reading a realist YA novel in the midst of a market enthralled with vampires (sorry! [I'm not sorry. I love puns.]) and werewolves, et cetera, is extremely refreshing. Although I love paranormal books, in the midst of all these biting and clawing metaphors for the human condition it can be easy to forget how refreshing and moving well-written realism can be. A protagonist doesn't have to be threatened by monsters for me to care about him/her. This book reminded me of that.

One of the main themes of Paper Towns is the way we tend to idealize those we love. Quentin has been obsessed (not in a stalkery way) with Margo for years, and because they are not particularly close as teenagers, his knowledge of her is based on a combination of observation and speculation that is particularly heavy on the speculation. We have all done this at some point(s) in our lives, likely when we were in high school, as Quentin is, but also likely not limited to that time. According to Quentin, Margo is a perfect girl. She is absent for most of the book, essentially existing only through what Quentin thinks about her and the assumptions he makes about her. Absolutely my favourite part of the book is towards the end, when Quentin meets Margo again and she completely debunks all of his theories about her, asserting her status as an individual existing outside of Quentin's perceptions of her. It is impossible for anyone to live up to Q's idea of Margo Roth Spiegelman, and by calling him out, Margo shows Quentin, and us, that a real person, flaws and all, is always better than an imaginary ideal.

I could go on, especially about Green's portrayal of suburbia, but instead you should read the book yourself. If you need further convincing, check out the Brotherhood 2.0 project (start at the beginning or check out the most popular), the vlogbrothers YouTube channel, or John Green's website.

P.S. I didn't mention that all the YouTube action above led to an incredible fanbase calling themselves nerdfighters. They follow John and Hank on twitter, YouTube and the general internet and, as far as I can tell, are amazing. It's a great example of author publicity, but more importantly, a great example of people being awesome and creating communities full of other awesome people.

That's all for now! Read some books!