“margo was not a miracle. she was not an adventure. she was not a fine and precious thing. she was a girl.” UGH. i love this book and i have always loved this book!!! in some ways i think it’s john’s most successful, in the way it really sits with the impossible hope of ever knowing someone else. the strings 😭 the grass 😭 the cracked open vessel letting the light in 😭 it’s about being young and afraid and hopeful and alive, and i’m glad i read it when i was 13, and i’m glad i read it now.

Some More Thoughts:
- it’s especially fun (? yes i’m having fun idk) in conversation with looking for alaska, since they’re obviously about similar things (how will we ever know what’s going on inside the head of this beautiful impenetrable sad girl!) in some ways paper towns goes farther in unraveling margo’s mystery, but it’s interesting how much we are still forced to romanticize and imagine her for ourselves; she’s present for so little of the book, really. which is the point! and makes me hope for her, and for alaska, out there somewhere. i hope it’s beautiful, too.
- the road trip is still so delightful and makes me laugh uproariously even 15 years later!!!!
- I Kissed Shara Wheeler does it better in a lot of ways, obviously, but it literally could not exist without Paper Towns, i think. so thank you, john, for inspiring my babe cmq to create the pure joy of two mean girls typing in the same google doc