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May 21, 2019IndyPL_SteveB rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
An excellent and thoughtful teen novel, also a winner of the Edgar Award for best young adult mystery. Quentin is a high school senior in Orlando, Florida. His next door neighbor is charismatic Margo. They were good friends when they were 10 but by the time they got to high school, he was in NerdLand and she was a school leader. He is still fixated on her. A few weeks before graduation, she climbs into his second story window and drags him off for a night of adventures, getting revenge on her cheating boyfriend and other people. She complains how she hates living in this paper town with all the paper people. The next day Margo does not show up for school, leaving a cryptic, depressed note and a lot of clues. Quentin talks several friends into helping him track through the clues. As he does, he begins to realize that he has kept this idealized image of Margo in his head for years; but he has no idea what she is really like. To track her down, he will have to learn who she really is – and to discover a lot more about himself. Great dialogue and characters, with some hilarious scenes, will keep teen readers galloping along; but the philosophy and wisdom is what will stick with them. Walt Whitman’s *Leaves of Grass* provides a lot of the clues and subtext for the story (and gave me a better understanding of Whitman, too). A challenging book in a lot of ways, not necessarily as a hard read, but as a book which challenges the reader to move toward adulthood.