Looking For Alaska – Book Review

Rating: 

I said it before and I will say it again, John Green is absolutely brilliant. This is by far one the best books I’ve ever read. Sadness, guilt, anger, mischief, trust, love, John Green penned these in a way I’ve never encountered in any other books.

John Green’s debut novel Looking for Alaska has been labeled as “young adult” fiction. This is surprising because the book is so very engaging, mature, and complex. The apparent difference between young adult fiction and regular adult fiction seems to be in subject matter. Looking for Alaska is about Florida high-school student Miles Halter and his foray into what he calls “the great perhaps,” a reference to Francois Rabelais’s dying words (dying words being the one thing Miles is interested in). Miles leaves his bland middle-class high school and journeys to Culver Creek, an elite boarding school in Alabama. Before Culver Creek, Miles’s life was boring. No real pain or pleasure seeped into his days; no friends or enemies or challenges of any kind. Culver Creek throws him into a different world, one with all that he lacked before. His first real friend is Chip, his brilliant white-trash roommate also known as “the Colonel.” Chip heads up the gang of kids that Miles falls in with, the most stunning and hypnotic of these is the gorgeous, sharp, troubled, sweet Alaska Young.

I read this book in one siting; it’s haunting and compelling in the simplest of ways. This is a story of one boy’s journey to seek a Great Perhaps, a story about friendship unlike any told before, a story full of quiet incidents with larger than life lessons. This is not a love story; this is a story about love. After reading and re-reading it again and again, I’ve decided that the Great Perhaps is not a destination, but a journey instead. And I think Pudge (Miles) found it within himself.

The character development in Looking for Alaska was amazing. I felt so deeply connected to these characters which is why this book was so incredibly heart wrenching. I have to say that Alaska Young  is a character that is going to stick with me for a long time. The funny part is Alaska is the type of character that I am least likely to ever look up to. Alaska enjoys sex, drinks and smokes excessively. There is something brilliant about Alaska that I just haven’t quite put my finger on yet. She was the character I grew most attached to during this novel. I think part of it was the mystery behind Alaska. She was quick to ask about Pudge and The Colonel’s life, but very seldom would she share her secrets.

John Green created a book full of mystery. He starts out with Before, but we have no idea what Before he is talking about. I had all these ideas running through my head of what Before could be. Then Before happened and it was least what I expected or wanted Before to be. When Before happened I was brought to tears and I started to deny that it ever happened. I felt my heart rip to pieces over this Before.

This book may be short, but Looking for Alaska changed my life. I was making up my 10 favorites of the 2nd half of 2013. I left two spaces in my favorites for the books I hadn’t read yet. Now I understand why I did that. I know I have read The Fault in Our Stars and that is supposedly the best John Green book, but I think Looking for Alaska may be MY favorite John Green book. I did not feel as many emotions reading The Fault in Our Stars as I did over Looking for Alaska. I left a space in my favorites for a reason. That reason is sitting right here in my hands. Looking for Alaska is a brilliantly written novel that will resonate with me for a long time. My only regret is how long it took for me to read this amazing novel.

 

Ana