On July 24 yet another John Green book made it to the big screen, Paper Towns. Unlike The Fault in Our Stars this book is not a tragic love story that leaves you in a puddle of your own tears, it is a story of adventure, mystery, and yes it has some romance.

        Although it is one of Green’s “happier” books it does contain a lot of vulgar language and speech. The main character Quentin Jacobsen, who goes by Q, is a senior in high school whose best friends are Ben Starling, who is a total pervert but somehow you still end up liking him, and Marcus also known as, Radar.

        Q is hopelessly in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman, a childhood friend and neighbor. Margo is different though. She loves mystery and adventure and does not like to be tied down. Q even said, “In everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.” After a night of adventure and righting wrongs and wronging rights Margo leaves, this time it seems, for good.  

        There is something to be learned from every book we read. It could be a romance novel, science fiction, non-fiction, it does not matter what genre, every book has a lesson. Paper Towns teaches us that as we go through life and plan for our future, there are still plenty of adventures and experiences to be lived, that sometimes we need to not get caught up in the someday and just live life to the fullest today.

Most of the book is about finding Margo and it is through that, that Q learns more about her and realizes that everyone, himself included, had never treated Margo like a real person. She represented something special and different for everyone and because of that, no one saw her for who she really was a papergirl in a paper town.

        In the end Green helps his readers and characters realize that by becoming an adult you are given freedom yes, but it is what we do with that freedom that the shows the world and everyone in it who you really are. Margo leaves her home town to travel the world because she is a free spirit and Q goes to college like he has always wanted because he wanted. Two different people staying true to who they are, even if it means being apart from the person they love most.