<P> Paper Towns is a novel written by John Green, primarily for an audience of young adults, and was published on October 16, 2008, by Dutton Books . The novel is about the coming - of - age of the protagonist, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen and his search for Margo Roth Spiegelman, his neighbor and childhood sweetheart . During his search, Quentin and his friends Ben, Radar, and Lacey discover information about Margo . </P> <P> John Green drew inspiration for this book from his experience and knowledge of "paper towns" during a road journey through South Dakota . It debuted at number five on the New York Times bestseller list for children's books and was awarded the 2009 Edgar Award for best young adult novel . A film adaptation was released on July 24, 2015 . </P> <P> Paper Towns takes place in and around a fictional subdivision, located in suburban Orlando, Florida, called "Jefferson Park". The novel focuses on the narrator and protagonist Quentin "Q" Jacobsen and his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman . As preadolescents, Quentin and Margo discover the corpse of a local man, Robert Joyner, who committed suicide in their neighborhood park after his divorce . Nine years after this incident, Quentin and Margo are senior pupils at Winter Park High School . One night, a month before their high school graduation, Margo appears at Quentin's bedroom window . She has devised an eleven - part plan of vengeance on a group of people she feels have hurt her during her time at high school; these people include Lacey, Jase, and Becca . Margo needs an accomplice and a car to help her complete the tasks, and tries to get Quentin to help her accomplish it . Quentin accepts, and after the plan is implemented, Margo and Quentin return to their homes around dawn . </P> <P> The next day, Quentin thinks about how things have changed . He wonders whether Margo will start hanging out with him and his friends Ben and Radar . However, Margo goes missing for three days; her parents file a police report . Quentin and his friends Ben and Radar then finds a series of clues that Margo has left him, such as a picture of Woody Guthrie on Margo's bedroom window shade, Margo's highlighted copy of Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself", and a written address in Quentin's bedroom doorjamb . Quentin and his friends use these clues and find an abandoned mini-mall in Christmas, Florida, that contains evidence of her recent presence . Quentin struggles to analyze all of Margo's clues and is unsure whether it confirms her suicide or validates his hypothesis that Margo was unsatisfied with her fake life . </P>

Where does the book paper towns take place