Review of Looking For Alaska by John Green

The award-winning, genre-defining debut from #1 bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist New York Times bestseller Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

As a YA fan I feel a bit ashamed that I have never read any John Green before. As I have 3 copies of Looking For Alaska kicking around my humble abode, I thought it might be prudent to read this Printz award winner, so I can have some street cred as a YA fan.

The plot of Looking for Alaska by John Green centers around Miles “Pudge”. He ends up going to boarding school in Alabama and making an interesting group of new friends. There’s lust, alcohol, swears, and pranks. Miles is kind of a dork, but my kind of dork.

I thought Miles was interesting with the whole last words obsession. One of my favorite lines from this book wasn’t actually penned by John Green, but spoken by Rabelais “I go to seek a great perhaps.” It was interesting to see Miles go from being kind of a boring unconfident guy, to really blossoming. I do enjoy dynamic characters quite a bit.

The supporting characters of Looking For Alaska by John Green rocked too! There was the Colonel, who was personally my favorite character. Watch for the scene of him at the basketball game, it’s hilarious. There was also Alaska, whom was kind of a bitch, but at the same time we get to learn why she’s so…odd in the end. Personally, I liked reading about Alaska, but she’s definitely not the kind of girl I’d be friends with in real life. Interesting how we come across all sorts of people in fiction whom we’d probably not go out of our way to meet IRL.

The writing definitely flows and I certainly liked the layout where the first half the sections/chapters are labelled with the amount of days before a certain event, and then the pages after are labelled with day after the event. I know with the writing, I certainly laughed aloud because I could relate, especially to a scene where some characters, ah, fumble and it’s really just awkward. As an awkward person, I can appreciate when other people are awkward. Also, there are parts of Looking For Alaska which did make me feel tight-chested because yeah, it’s sad.

While reading Looking For Alaska, you ought to drink some strawberry snapple. It’s non-alcoholic and yummy and well, a not-so-close alternative to the strawberry wine mentioned within Looking For Alaska.

Other reviews of Looking For Alaska by John Green:

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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