Don't fall for an illusion......

3 Stars for Paper Towns by John Green

Once again, I seem to have a minority opinion about a book. The plot: male teen (Quentin) obsessed (infatuated) with next door neighbor (Margo Roth Spiegelman) goes through incredible lengths to find her after she disappears. He believes he finds clues that she has left for HIM so that he alone will be able to track her down and “rescue” her. He enlists the help of his friends in this search; all the while worried about this girl he has never had a relationship with beyond a grade school friendship.

Although the teens in the story did, at times, act like typical high school seniors, exhibit teen humor and antics -- the entire scenario was implausible and did not reflect the emotions, activities, and obsessions typical of any 17 year old boy I've ever seen. I checked out my thoughts on this with Chance -- a fairly typical 17 year old soccer player who also found it difficult to believe the male character's actions and motivations. This book did not ring true on the most fundamental levels - it was pretty unrealistic and sort of pathetic that this boy fancies himself on a noble quest and sees himself as a hero, ultimately, hopefully to her. Unrequited teen infatuation, angst, drama, a car trip -- all of it hard to swallow.

The novel started off to be entertaining but then it seemed to dwindle into tediousness. The overly long focus on the words and analysis of Leaves of Grass, and the plodding and painstaking descriptions of all the search attempts left me bored and impatient. Many times I just wanted it all to be over with and was tempted to just read the ending. I kept going hoping that the conclusion would be so astounding as to redeem the rest of the filler. It didn't. The last few chapters were just ……..completely unbelievable. I did learn something very interesting that I did not know, and that was the definition and explanation of the term “Paper Town.”

The morals of this story: Stop imagining positive qualities and characteristics of people you don't really know. They aren't worth it. Get to know the real person and see people how they really are, not the way you want them to be. Do not fall for an illusion.

Recommendation: Borrow, don't buy.