All About "Paper Towns"

         Paper Towns is a book that contains adventure, betrayal, love, and everything in between. The book takes place in Quentin Jacobsen's, also known as "Q", and Margo Roth Spiegelman's subdivision in Orlando, Florida. When Quentin and Margo were younger, they decided to bike to a nearby park. When they arrived, they saw a dead man who had committed suicide after his recent divorce. The book then goes forward to when Quentin and Margo are now in high school. They have become distant as time went on. A while before their high school graduation, Margo suddenly appears at Quentin's bedroom window. She wants Quentin to help her with the 11 events she has planned to get revenge on those who have mistreated her in some way. Quentin and Margo first go to Walmart to get all the supplies they will need for Margo's plan. They get 13 pounds of catfish, the fat-daddy size of Vaseline, blue spray paint, a six pack of Mountain Dew, Veet, and a dozen tulips. They then go to Margo's best friend's house, where her best friend is currently sleeping with Margo's ex-boyfriend. Margo calls her best friend's dad to inform him what is happening in his basement, and Margo's ex-boyfriend then attempts to escape the scene while naked. Margo then instructs Quentin to take a picture of him. Next, Margo and Quentin break inside the house. They spray paint a 'M' to symbolize that Margo was there and leave a catfish to symbolize her best friend's betrayal. After, Margo and Quentin visit Margo's friend Karin and leave her a bouquet of flowers because she informed Margo about the affair between her ex-boyfriend and best friend. Next, they go to Margo's ex-boyfriend's house. They spray paint a 'M' and leave him a catfish. After, they go to Margo's friend, Lacey's, house and break into her car. They put a catfish underneath her car seat and spray paint a 'M' on the roof. Then, they break into the SunTrust bank building and go to one of the higher floors to see all of Orlando. There, Margo refers to Orlando as a "paper town". She describes it as "fake" and "not even hard enough to be plastic". As they are leaving the building, Margo gives Quentin the choice on who they should sabotage next. Quentin chooses the school bully, Chuck Parson. They break into Chuck's house, remove one of his eyebrows with hair removal cream, and put Vaseline all over the door knobs in his house. Next, they break into SeaWorld. Afterwards, Margo and Quentin return back to their homes. Quentin barely makes it to school that day, and spends the day wondering if Margo will start talking to him at school. However, she doesn't arrive to school that day or a few days later either. Her parents then file a missing persons report, but are more frustrated than worried because Margo has been missing a few times before. Since Quentin was the last person to be in contact with Margo, he was questioned a lot by an investigator. As days go on after Margo's disappearance, Quentin finds different hints that may help him find out where Margo has went. On the day of their graduation, he finally believes he knows where Margo may be. The only problem is that he believes she is in Agloe, New York. Quentin gets his best friends, Radar and Ben to go on the journey with him. Radar's girlfriend, Lacey, decides to join them and they start their journey to New York. Once they arrive in Agloe, they discover Margo was staying in an old barn. Margo was vey shocked when she saw the group of friends. She gets upset that they found her, claiming that she didn't leave any of the clues to be used to find her and says she didn't want to be found. The group of friends are angry with Margo's response so they leave Margo and decide to stay the night at a motel. The next day, Quentin goes to Margo, and they have a deep conversation of everything that has happened. Quentin and Margo then kiss briefly. Quentin wants to stay with her, but understands that the natures of his life at home restrict him from staying. At the end, Margo and Quentin promise to keep in contact with each other. In my opinion, I believe Paper Towns has a connection with the real world because teenagers generally run away from home to get away from the stress, like in Margo's case.