Paper Towns is a coming of age novel, aimed at young adults. However, this story of self-discovery is suitable for adult readers as well.

Paper Town - Definition:
A paper town is a fake town created by map makers created to protect their copyright.
Map makers put fake streets, fake towns, and fake bridges in their maps, so if they see those same fake places on someone else's map, they'll know that they've been robbed.
(As explained by John Green)

Although by definition, paper town is a fake town created by map makers, in the novel, the word “paper” used for anything fake or insubstantial.

"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 see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town." (Margo)

The two main characters are Quentin "Q" Jacobsen and his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman. Q has always been fascinated by Margo, who was his childhood sweetheart. As they grew up, Margo became more outgoing while Q continued to hang out with the unpopular kids. Over time, Margo became more unattainable and more mysterious.

One night, few weeks before high school graduation, Margo appears at Q’s window and they embark on an adrenaline-filled all-night adventure to take revenge on unfaithful friends and bullies throughout their neighborhood. During the journey, Q feels close Margo again and he goes to sleep that night with renewed hopes.

But the next day Margo has vanished.

As she has run away before, her parents don’t care. The police is not looking. Her friends just assume that she’s off on another adventure.

Quentin fears the worst. He thinks that she has taken off to commit suicide. Then he finds clues left specifically for him in highlighted passages of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (Poem: "Song of Myself"). The highlighted lines confirm his fear.

Using the clues, he starts a desperate search for Margo. Along the way, he realizes that his search is not just for Margo he knew, but for the "real" Margo, the girl nobody really knew. Cracking Margo’s mystery helps Q to understand himself as well.

Like that famous saying, it is Q's journey which matters more than the destination. Whether or not he finds Margo and her paper towns, Quentin discovers love and finds that it can be just as elusive as mysterious Margo. During the journey, Quintin comes of age and is able to say goodbye to his past and his previous ideals. He finds himself and understands what matters.

All in all, Paper Towns is a beautiful coming of age story that is recommended for both light readers and serious readers.

I will finish off with a few quotes from the book.

“That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste.”

“When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.”

“And all at once I knew how Margo Roth Spiegelman felt when she wasn’t being Margo Roth Spiegelman: she felt empty. She felt the unscaleable wall surrounding her. I thought of her asleep on the carpet with only that jagged sliver of sky above her. Maybe Margo felt comfortable there because Margo the person lived like that all the time: in an abandoned room with blocked-out windows, the only light pouring in through holes in the roof. Yes. The fundamental mistake I had always made–and that she had, in fairness, always led me to make–was this: Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.”