Books to Read Before the Movie Comes Out

The second big-screen treatment of a John Green novel (following last year’s The Fault in Our Stars) hits theaters July 24 and concerns a certain high-school senior named Margo, who intentionally disappears in order to torment those who wounded her. Like Fault, Paper Towns blends teenage hijinks (for example: swaddling a car in plastic wrap) with some grown-up lessons. But from its irresistible first sentence—“The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle,” Paper Towns shows why Green earned his teen-whisperer reputation, capturing the way suburbia breeds frustration in kids with the go-for-broke optimism that inspires them to bust free.