By Haley McNulty – Entertainment Editor

Paper town (n): a town that is flimsy and planned; subdivisions that were started and then abandoned, exist on paper but not entirely in real life; a cartographic trick where mapmakers will include fake places onto their maps to make sure no one is copying them.

In his third young adult novel, “Paper Towns,” John Green, the author of “The Fault in Our Stars,” writes about the “paper” feelings that main character Quentin Jacobson has towards his lifelong (but not close) friend Margo Roth Spiegelman.

Green begins the novel with the story of an extremely scarring and important event: when Margo and Quentin find an unknown dead man in their neighborhood park. Margo becomes infatuated with the investigation of the strange man, and would appear at his window in the middle of the night to update him on her discoveries.

Ever since then, Quentin has thought he was in love with Margo, while he discovers he was only in love with the idea of her: he had “paper” feelings for her, loving what he saw and fabricating what he didn’t.

When Margo randomly knocks on his window one night, throwing Quentin into an elaborate 11-step plan to plot revenge on those who wronged her involving leaving catfish in their cars and houses and spray-painting a blue “M” in their wake, he realizes the feelings he has for her are false by educating him on the meaning of “paper towns.”

However, the adventure doesn’t stop there. The next day, when Margo doesn’t show up to school, her parents quickly come to the conclusion that she had run away.

Leaving an elaborate set of clues in her wake, like a book of poems with specific highlighted lines, Quentin is lead to several unfinished or failed subdivisions, turning up nothing. It isn’t until graduation day that he is brought to a long-awaited conclusion.

This book can be read in less than a day. Two things that are particularly enjoyable about Green’s writing are his use of symbolism and annotation.

With each part in this three-part book, a new and improved definition of “paper towns” was concluded while still following through with the original plot. The characters were very well-developed.

However, the same three lines of the poem Margo had left for Quentin must have been repeated a hundred times. Near the end of the book, things started to slow down where Quentin had run into a dead-end.

“Paper Towns” is also being adapted into a movie, which will be released in 2015. Right now, Cara Delevingne will play Margo Roth Spiegelman. Nat Wolff will play Quentin Jacobson.

Overall, “Paper Towns” was another great book from Green. The plot was well-developed and the details were very elaborate. While the book hit a dry patch near the end, the ending was easy to understand and made complete sense.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

(Photo courtesy johngreenbooks.com)