Paper Towns

Reading John Green's Paper Towns brought me back to high school era thinking, but not in a nostalgic way. The novel is set in Orlando, Florida and the main characters are high school seniors, trying to navigate their way through the labyrinth that is adolescence. In the past I have found that I don't care too much for books like this, mainly because I find them to be trite, sappy, weird, or the author is just trying too darn hard to recreate their own past.

This book is different, though. Green does a great job of showing you glimpses of high school students as they are perceived to be (party-obsessed, goofing off) but also their inner spirits, the ones you don't see often enough in literature or films. Green has the ability to capture the feelings and difficulties that some students go through: their inability to fit in, their strong desire to leave where they were raised, their furious pursuit of being left alone by their parents. But when Green writes it, it doesn't seem cliche. When he writes it, it seems truly realistic, as if you are, at times, watching a documentary.

Of course there are scenes that just flat-out make you laugh, but you really smile when he focuses on the discovery of new writings, of new music, of exploring a world outside Orlando that seems more vast than it could ever be. These characters remind you that even though we are constantly bombarded by the different high school archetypes (nerd, jock, goth, introvert), often times there are many students who transcend those boundaries, and the results are refreshing. So if you're looking for a fun read, give it a shot.