The latest from John Green's excellent back catalogue - too good for just the kids and YAs!

(12/01/22) I might be reading Green’s books in an odd order, but they seem to be getting better … or maybe I’m getting more familiar with his style? There are a lot of repeating themes; American teenage angst, particularly boys and relationships, but more broadly about facing adult life. In the mix are also - in some parts - a mystery, a tragedy, a journey against time, leading to a resolution, more or less. The ‘less’ leaves some room for unknowns (unknowables from a young age?) and challenges for the leads beyond the main arc of the storyline. Very clever, the characters can live on after the book!

In this case, Quentin has a long-term crush on his neighbour, the beautiful, the untouchable, the incredible Margo Beth Roth Spiegelman. But maybe she hasn’t really got it all worked out, there are cracks that he can’t see until he gets closer, and tries to understand the pressures and uncertainties in her life. Most of the book is Quentin trying to find the missing Margo, following her clues and trying to understand her as a real person (particularly via a Walt Whitman poem 'Leaves of Grass'), and then a chaotic road trip to find/rescue her, and finish his own, and others, journey(s). I’m assuming there is a lot of John Green in ‘Q’, but maybe he has just found the secret ingredients to encapsulate all our insecurities, and the joys and challenges of growing up, into perfectly packaged novels. The Paper Towns are a metaphor for 2D people and places, and undeveloped sub-divisions, but also a clever map-making trick that helps Q and his friends find Margo. I won’t give any more away. Anyhoo, brilliant, 10 stars!

This is a new release location for me, upstairs in ‘Pret’ - great coffee and free Wi-Fi, what’s not to like!

If you find this book, welcome to book crossing