I waver between 4 and 5 stars for this...let's say 4.5. 
 Early on I could see it was going to be a deconstruction of the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl trope, but that didn't really help me like Margo, in all her Manic Pixie Dreamgirlness, very much. So I found it hard to get into the book at the beginning, and even though I see the point of it-- and I actually think the structuring is brilliant-- it's still keeping it from being 5 stars, for me. 
 That said, I really did love the way the book gradually moved deeper and deeper, just like Q did as he learned who Margo really was (as much as we can ever know another person). The way Q moved through this journey of discovery is one of the best coming-of-age tales I've ever read. I still didn't like Margo much until the very end, and that was mostly empathy, but I adored the other characters, especially Radar. 
 There really is something about the end of high school that lets social hierarchies loosen up and lets you see each other in a different light; this was brilliantly described at the party. I loved Lacey too-- not just another mean girl, but someone who could actually like Ben-- Ben! And she really was concerned for Margo out of genuine love, and her backhanded compliments are easy to see, at least from the perspective of adulthood, as her own insecurities. Margo is hard to compete with. 
 As much as Q's quest for Margo helped him achieve maturity and really come into his own, Q helped Margo with that final push toward maturity at the end. That was really nice balance, and indicative of how beautifully this book is structured. 
 I thought Q crashing on the Great White Cow was a little literal but amusing. Moby Dick was a sort of obvious parallel but I really liked the way Leaves of Grass was used-- not just in borrowing metaphors, but the way Q and Margo use it. It's benchmarks of their intellectual growth-- first they take quotes out of context, use metaphors literally, misunderstand; then Q starts to process the whole poem in stages, and taking Whitman's philosophy for his own; finally, Q can critique it critically, realize Whitman maybe wasn't quite right, assimilate what he can from it but not dependent on it. Again really lovely construction. 
 I'm not sure how much sense this is all making but I stayed up to 1 am to finish it and I have a lot of feelings about it!