CT: Paper Towns

Like the rest of the free world, I read and saw The Fault In Our Stars last summer. And yes, I cried all the way through the book and the movie. Because I have a lot of emotions. 

Me, during the freaking TRAILER for some movies.

People kept recommending that I read more of John Green's books, but I was always super hesitant. As much as I love teenagers who are fighting both for their love and their lives (it's nothing! I have something in my eye!), I wasn't quite ready to commit to another sob fest quite yet. 

Then Cait really pushed me to check out Paper Towns, and I always do what my Little tells me to. I know the movie version of Paper Towns isn't out yet, but the book came out in 2008 so I don't feel too terribly bad about the spoilers to come. 

Both books center on teenagers and both are written with much more depth than I expect from young adult fiction. And that's about where the similarities end. Where The Fault In Our Stars is centered around tragedy, Paper Towns is centered around a mystery. Actually, it's centered on two mysteries. What happened to Margo Roth Spiegelman? And who really is Margo Roth Spiegelman?

The first thing that really struck me about this book is that it's tackling a terribly complex concept. Not just a complex concept for young adult, but for any literature. The message at the heart of Paper Towns is that we humans aren't good at seeing other people as complete humans. We see them as images, as two-dimensional pictures of the things we imagine about their lives. Even for those closest to us, it's difficult for us to see them as whole. You never really know what's going on inside someone else's head. Reading Paper Towns has made me think about how bad I am at this, personally. 

The other thing that I was struck by is how very, very real this book felt. At one point early during Q's search for Margo, I legitimately believed that he would find Margo dead somewhere. Hell, even by the end of the book I thought that was a very real possibility. And to be honest, it wouldn't have felt misplaced at all if he had found her dead. I found myself thinking, many times "Holy freaking cow, this is a teen novel that's going to handle the concept of suicide." Not in a pandering or angsty way, but in a real way. 

So who really knows if the movie will be as good as the book? On one hand, when is the movie ever as good as the book? But on the other, John Green has been super hands on with the movie and I think that'll help. And he seems to think that the movie is at least as good as his book. 

Paper Towns comes out July 24th, and stars the adorable Nat Wolff and the spectacularly eye-browed Cara Delevigne. And I for one cannot wait. 

Until next time, 

CT