Contributing Writer
Staff Page
With the recent release of NY Times best selling novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, two of the most notable young adult writers of today, I'm reminded of Green's previous young adult novel Paper Towns. While it may seem random that i'm waxing poetic about it on an Orlando themed blog, there's a reason: Green was a long-time Orlando resident and the book is proof.
Ever since he was a child, Q was enamored with Margo Roth Spiegelman. She wasn't just a person, she was a presence, someone who warranted being known by their full name. Now, on the cusp of graduating high school and fully aware he'll never be more than a neighbor to her, he's ready to move on and go to college. That is, until she shows up at his window one night dressed as a ninja, and climbs back into his life. After a night of adventure, whereupon she inflicts an incredible amount of revenge on some fellow classmates, he's sure that the remaining days in school will be perfect. But when Q arrives to school the next day, Margo isn't there. Nor the day after. Although she's always been an enigma, one prone to disappearing randomly only to encounter an insane adventure, he's unsure this time. Soon, Q sees clues left for him by her, clues that lead him on his own adventure and towards a mystery he'd never expected. Yet, as he gets closer to her, he starts to see less of the girl he thought he knew.
Part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, Paper Towns takes the reader throughout the streets of Central Florida and beyond on one big adventure leading to an overwhelmingly honest metaphor. It's about what we imagine others to be, and what happens when we find out who they really are. It's about love and loss - but, really, it's about realizations.
There was something incredibly neat about seeing streets I drive down every day immortalized in print. Q and Margo live in a development off Lakemont (Baldwin Park), they go to Winter Park High School, and he's frequently driving on I-4. They visit the SunTrust building downtown, and stare at the giant asparagus (which I later realized meant this). They break into SeaWorld; no residential area is left unmentioned. It's easy to see how much of an impression Orlando had on Green's formative years.
In the end, the book pieces together every part of high school you remember (life-changing road trips), and every part of high school you'd like to forget (embarrassing nicknames). For someone who went to high school here in Orlando, it was a completely relatable story. An absolute excellent read that wasn't just deep, but also fun.
(Part of review originally posted here)