Paper Towns by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My first John Green book, I thought it was great. Lots of excellent wit, some great ideas about literature and human relationships, and a clever plot combining a love story with a really engaging detective mystery story. What I found really amazing about the mystery story was that it combined physical clues with the revelations of growing up, so there was a time issue to the hero finding out what he wanted: he has to go through certain experiences to understand the mindset of the person he's looking for. Very clever, and quite original. Something for everyone.
If I had to find something negative to say (and I do), I found Green's adult characters rather two-dimensional and uninvolved. The intriguing idea of the runaway girl-as-untethered balloon comes from an intriguing adult character, a detective who I thought was going to become involved in the story and act as a realistic mentor-type character for the main protagonist. However, once the character's voiced his idea he doesn't come into the story again, which I thought was a shame. Other adult influences in the story are shallow or apparently non-existent. But perhaps this is what life feels like for a teenager, and I've just forgotten.
Next stop: all the other John Green books!
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