Paper Towns - John Green

For ages 13 - 16

This book at first might seem like a YA mystery....a boy searching for the girl who disappears after a night of reckless adventure....but actually it’s really a story about projection. About the way we turn people into ideas instead of seeing them properly.

Quentin has spent years quietly loving Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. When she vanishes, leaving behind a trail of clues, he convinces himself he understands her. The road trip that follows is funny, chaotic, occasionally cringey and deeply teenage.

There’s some drinking, some swearing, mild sexual references ...nothing graphic, but it feels authentically adolescent rather than sanitised. What Green does well is capture that particular intensity of being 17: the belief that this moment is everything. 

Underneath the humour is a gentle lesson about not romanticising people into “paper” versions of themselves.

A thoughtful pick for teens (year 9 and up) who like contemporary stories about friendship, identity, and the strange ache of growing up.

Format: Paperback 
Publisher: Angus&Robertson
Page count: 353
ISBN: 9780732289003
Origin: USA
Condition: VERY GOOD