Author: John Green
Publisher: Speak
Year Published: 2008
Pages: 305
Quentin Jacobsen--or Q--had been obsessed with his popular classmate and neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, since his childhood. The beautiful and unique Margo. But just like the other unpopular students, Quentin couldn't reach Margo so that he just liked to look at her from his bedroom window. One day, Margo appeared in Q's room, and asked Q to join her one night adventure. Together, they had to fulfill 11 missions, from breaking into their classmate's house to breaking into the Sea World. It was such an unforgettable night for Quentin so that he thought that starting that night, his relationship with Margo would change. But what came the next day surprised him.
That night, I lay on my side, staring out the window into the invisible world outside. I kept trying to fall asleep, but then my eyes would dart open, just to check. I couldn't help but hope that Margo Roth Spiegelman would return to my window and drag my tired ass through one more night I'd never forget.
Margo had left her house. And it's not the first time. Her parents had lost their patient and decided not to care. However, Margo was already 18, which is considered as adult. They thought Margo was just looking for attention as usual, since on her last departure, she had left some clues--which her parents decided to ignore--and came back by herself after being ignored. But Quentin couldn't stay quiet. He really felt that this time, Margo was serious and maybe she had planned something horrible to herself.
Quentin then searched for the clues Margo had left. With the help of his two best friends, Ben and Radar, Quentin searched and analyzed Margo. What he found later, made him realize that maybe, the true Margo Roth Spiegelman was not like what he had imagined before.
Here's what's not beautiful about it: from here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You can see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all those culs-de-sac, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.
