Looking for Alaska

Look, there's plenty of reviews for [[John Green]] books, but most of them are from folks quite a bit younger than me, and I suspect a different gender. This is the second of his books I've read, and I can't help thinking that he is filling a void left by John Hughes. It's a void I'm glad he's filling, frankly, and updating. Hughes tapped into and provided a voice for a whole generation - yes, there are problems with his movies looking back with more sensitive hindsight. And I'm sure Green will suffer the same fate in another couple decades when people look back on his work and the film adaptations. But it's rare to be able to tap into a time and ethos while it's still playing out. While I didn't like this one as much as [The Fault in show more our Stars], I did like it, especially the main character's obsession with famous dead people's last utterances.

4 bones!!!! show less

Miles Halter, who is going away to Culver Creek Boarding School, has had a pretty uneventful life. He has no real friends, and the only “hobby” he has is memorizing the last words of prominent individuals. He flips to the end of biographies just to find the subject’s last words. Needless to say, Miles is pretty bored with his life. He decides to go to the boarding school his father went to in order to seek “the Great Perhaps”. Once there, he meets Alaska Young, who catapults his life from boring to exciting. Miles is completely taken by Alaska and falls in love with her, though his love is unrequited. She offers everything he had felt was lacking in his life before her. Alaska is full of drama, danger, excitement, and mystery. show more Miles takes on the nickname, “Pudge”, and makes his first real friends in the form of his roommate, Chip “The Colonel” Martin, Takumi Hikohito, and Alaska, of course. Miles’ life becomes anything but ordinary, and he loves it, until one event alters everything and Miles will never be the same.
I read Looking for Alaska for Banned Books Week. I’m so glad I did. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s a real shame that there are people who want to keep this book away from their children. Yes, there’s smoking, drinking, swearing, and sexual situations; but that’s not likely anything new to anyone over the age of twelve. There is one sexual act and it is hardly explicit. Looking for Alaska is a learning experience. It’s a chance to discuss difficult topics with kids, and give guidance. If you’re the parent of a teen or pre-teen, you shouldn’t be banning this book, you should be begging your child to read it. I’ll get off my soapbox about that now.
I loved this book. I laughed a lot, I cried, I felt happy, I felt depressed. It was very emotional for me. Looking for Alaska drew me in and I wasn’t just reading about these kids, I was there with them. It was so hard for me to put the book down, and I was thinking about the characters even when I wasn’t reading. I finished Looking for Alaska two days ago and I found myself thinking of them again last night. I waited a few days to write this review, because I felt like my review could never do justice to the book, and it probably won’t. The writing was excellent and the character development was awesome. I loved all of them; Miles, Alaska, The Colonel, and Takumi. They were my friends for a few days and I was sad to see them go at the end of the book. I really liked The Fault in Our Stars also by Green, but I liked Looking for Alaska even more. Read this book! You can find my other reviews and features at bookwormbookreviews.com show less

What can I possibly say about Looking for Alaska that hasn’t been said already? I resolved to read a John Green novel this year, so when I was gift shopping at Target and saw that shiny red bulls-eye sticker proclaiming this book was 20% off, I couldn’t help but to grab a copy of this deceptively slim book. I had put a quite a bit of pressure on this book. John Green seems to be on everyone favorite authors list, so I felt the need to be blown away by this book right off the bat.

The first thirty pages left me a bit confused on why this book was such a YA classic. Miles was entertaining enough in his own head, but nothing seemed particularly interesting about him. Then Alaska walked into his life, and I started to understand. Alaska show more is a force of a character. She’s all over the map and she admits it herself. She’s incredibly intelligent, witty, and has a love for literature that rivals my own, but she also is full of self-loathing, destructive behaviors, and spirals out of control within seconds.

Sometimes the novel seemed to wander aimlessly, but I always had a feeling we were headed towards something. Even the most mundane scenes seemed to have meaning the further along in the book I went. I loved the way the book tied so many things together, from Miles’ obsession with last words to Alaska’s love of poetry, suffering, the human condition, etc. It’s a short book, but it tackles many issues within the pages, even though I never got the impression that the book was written with an overarching theme. There clearly is a theme present, but it develops organically from the characters and who they are, not forced by the author.

There are also some amazing sentences in this book. I’d go along, reading what sounded like a relatively normal teenage boy’s point of view, and then out of nowhere beautiful sentences would pop up. Sentences like the following:

So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane.

I know it’s one of the most popular quotes from the book and practically everyone’s heard it, but it was just one of many parts of the book that lodged itself into my brain and refuse to leave. Besides just how great of wording that sentence is, it’s also true. Alaska is wild and a bit beautiful, but destructive, whereas Miles, at least at first, is steady and safe but unimpressive. And the more I read, the more that became the entirety of the book that made a home in my mind and refuses to leave.

It’s too early for me to say, but I think this may become one of my “Very Special Books”. That title can only be given on multiple readings, but it’s given to books that become more than just books to me, that help me measure my life and remember who I am and what words mean to me. At the moment, Looking for Alaska has a high chance of becoming a Very Special Book.

Final Impression: Despite my reservations at the beginning of the book, this story soon grabbed hold of me and refused to leave. I became enamored with these characters and their antics. The ideas of this book totally captivated me and I understand why this book means so much to so many people. 5/5 stars.

Review originally posted on my blog at Book.Blog.Bake. show less

This was a great book; an amazing voice, an eccentric story, and ultimately a lot to ponder. Reminded me a little of a contemporary "Catcher in the Rye."

Miles isn't quite sure what attending an Alabama boarding school is going to be like. But when he gets there, it's difficult for him not to get immediately pulled in. Between being saddled with a new nickname (Pudge), a bold and brash roommate who calls himself the Colonel, and the beautiful, philosophical, unafraid girl down the hall named Alaska, he's in for a wild ride. And so, it turns out, is the reader.

I quickly learned that Green has a stunning knack for building a real main character voice and presenting real teenage situations; the narration was wonderful, sparing nothing in show more fear, joy, confusion, grief, honesty, and anger. Miles' fascination with people's last words, as well as the meaning of our lives, is something I readily identified with. And the emotional part of the book, in other words the last third, was truly a punch. It's hard to walk away from this book without wanting to take a deeper look at life, your friends, and the world around you. show less

"I go to seek a Great Perhaps." - Francois Rabelais’ last words

Culver Creek, one hundred and thirty six days before…

From the moment the reader is introduced to Looking for Alaska’s protagonist, Miles Halter, we are graced with a charming, naïve and idealistic fifteen-year old, with a penchant for remembering famous figures’ last words. Miles becomes entranced by some of these words, and decides to attend his father’s former boarding school to seek out Rabelais’ Great Perhaps.

So we follow Miles to Culver Creek in rural Alabama. There he meets a motley crew of teenagers; his roommate, Chip, amusingly and appropriately referred to as the “Colonel”, who gives a skinny Miles the nickname “Pudge”; Takumi, the show more mild-mannered and loyal Japanese rapper; and Lara, the beautiful and sweet Romanian. And it is here, on his first day, that Miles meets Alaska. Sexy, impulsive, and dangerously alluring Alaska. This small group of friends orbits around the enigmatic young misfit, getting themselves into all kinds of harmless mischief, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, breaking curfews and scheming pranks. For Miles, Alaska is unobtainable but addictive, and he is drawn closer and closer into her web of chaos. She catches his attention from the off, the voracious reader bestowing him with the mysterious last words of Simón Bolívar…

"How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?"

After. A shocking event occurs half way through the book that shatters this little world and causes the circle of friends to spin into a whirlwind of emotions; guilt, anger, love, betrayal and grief. Most of all, they learn about loss. The loss of childhood, the loss of before and the shock of after.

There is a beautiful, poignant symmetry to this book. We begin one hundred and thirty six days before, and end one hundred and thirty six days after. In that time, all our characters have traversed a long and difficult journey from adolescence to adulthood, learning about life and love along the way. Interestingly I read this book directly after Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book which, though a completely different story and style of writing, has many parallels in theme to Alaska.

Devastatingly compelling, quietly philosphical and ultimately brutal, Looking for Alaska is possibly the best young adult book I have ever read, and is a remarkable debut for the effervescent John Green who seems to be popping up all over the place (see his blog here). I'm not sure my words will do justice to how I felt about this book. After finishing it, I could not even think about reading another book for over three days (very unlike me), and I still find myself thinking about Alaska now. An absolute joy to read.

A deeply personal coming-of-age tale of what to do when the unthinkable happens. And the ultimate question, as Alaska herself asked. How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering? show less

I found this a realistic portrayal of high school kids just being kids, but also having to deal with a traumatic situation. I liked that these were the smart kids because it reminded me of myself growing up and trying to rebel against doing the right thing while still making sure I got my homework done and that I got decent grades. Each character was explicitly defined and had a vibrant personality all of their own. I loved Miles’s love of last words by famous people; it brought deeper meaning to the whole analysis of living life in the labyrinth and exploring endings. This was a book that made you think in a philosophical way. I wish it was available when I was in high school because I know I would have held it dear.

An extremely well written book that made me re-examine the way I think about about 'knowing' people, and caused me to really have a long think about how I feel about living with ambiguity.

And, of course, once again, John Green made me totally love his characters and cry again. (Not saying why to avoid spoilers...)

John Green has a talent for examining very deep, important, emotional issues... while keeping the characters realistic and normal. They examine their lives, but it doesn't feel forced or fake-- they feel like normal people, talk like normal people and the language of his books flow beautifully.

Another thing I really like about Mr. Green is that he has FAQs posted on his website that explore questions about his books that show more readers have asked... so if you wonder the deep metaphorical question of why a character was named a certain way, he actually has answers available. Which, to me, is very satisfying. I often have wished I could find some of those answers for other writers' books. (Although he never will say what happens afterwards, he believes that his opinions on what happens after a book is over are no more valid than any other reader...)

Highly recommended.

Small warning for parents. There is a short sex scene in this book, which is included for the purpose of showing teens that sex without emotion is nowhere near as fulfilling as mere kissing with someone you love. (He contrasts a very awkward oral sex scene with a deeply emotional kissing scene.) If you feel your child is too young, you may want to avoid... or this can provide an opportunity to discuss why the kissing was so much more emotionally satisfying for the protagonist... show less