If I were to follow the Young Adult categorization of Paper Towns, I wouldn't be near the thing by a minimum of fifty shouting feet because 1.I'm not young; 2.I sure don't act like your usual adult some or most times; 3. I love to tease friends and some GR friends loved this book and gave it five stars and I didn't like to read it and I just wanted to give it one star if I do so they can plot how to kill me with hardcover John Green books. But Paper Towns actually tries to defy that: categorization. Or prejudgment. Like it's a hamster you try to pack but just can't because it always wriggles its way out and refuses to be packed and God knows only SBC Packers can do the whole cursed job. (You don't know SBC Packers?)

John Green knows his characters, he creates them and perhaps believes in them so much they become real-life living persons inhabiting this world for him and his readers. As we all know, in fiction as in life, believing--or the suspension of disbelief-- is all-important. It's fueled by imagination, that God-like attribute that calls things as if they were. By the way Green created his people--charming, endearing, affective-- in Paper Towns, he must be oozing and reeking with imagination like some stars do sex appeal. Which explains why he is such a celebrity among his readers, the YAs, although I hate that exclusive category.

Paper Towns is a brilliant, if at parts repetitive, tackling of adulthood, perception, and personal identity. It's about really seeing people and not confining them to mere perceptions or ideas. That John Green managed to ensconce important issues of existence in the story of high school seniors led by Q and Margo and did it in rollicking read infused with literary references is simply admirable.

I would have given this five stars but I already said the part about how I am as a friend.