Looking for Alaska

Flash forward the age groups represented in [Bridge to Terabithia:] about 5 years, set it in a boarding school and you have [Looking for Alaska:].
The plot progression in the two are almost identical. That's not a slight at all, BTT is one of my favorite youth books ever.

Oh well! Looking for Alaska does have a hilarious scene where the main character sustains a concussion that made me laugh out loud. I can't remember the last book to make me actually laugh.

I just finished reading Looking for Alaska, making it the fifth John Green book I've read, after Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Let It Snow, The Fault In Our Stars, and An Abundance of Katherines. I enjoyed Looking for Alaska immensely, just like I did the other three. (My favorite being Let It Snow, which he wrote with two other authors as a set of three related short stories.) I haven't made a habit out of reading young adult fiction, but for John Green I'll definitely make an exception. I should also pick up some of Maureen Johnson's books; her contribution to Let It Snow was excellent.

I have a confession to make before I go any further: I am a Nerdfighter. I was introduced to John and Hank Green about two years ago by one of my best friends, by way of Crash Course. Since then I've (almost!) caught up on their Vlogbrother videos, watched most of the Crash Course videos (sorry Hank, I'm just not into chemistry) and started watching Sci Show. John and Hank are both extremely educated, well spoken, and yet extremely entertaining and fun to watch. Watching the vlogbrothers episodes where John talks about writing the books (as he's writing them!) is what finally made me go pick up his books to read. And he's GOOD.

In Looking for Alaska, Miles Halter goes away to boarding school at Culver Creek, his father's alma mater. He's in search of his “great perhaps,” his meaning for life. (The phrase comes from Francois Rabelais' last words “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” Miles doesn't want to wait until he dies to go in search of his.) Culver Creek really marks a turning point in Miles' life - from a friendless outcast in his old school to one of the closest friends of Alaska Young. Alaska is a bit of a bad girl (sneaking cigarettes and alcohol into school constantly and pulling ingenious pranks) but also an enigma. The entire school body loves her, but even to her closest friends she doesn't reveal much about herself.

The book is divided into “before” and “after” and it wasn't until within a few pages till the end of the “before” section that I realized what the event was. “After” deals with the characters of the book coming to terms with their life-altering event.

In The Fault In Our Stars, John Green dealt with the lead up to a life-altering event that the characters knew was coming - a long, drawn-out sort of grief. Looking For Alaska deals with the fallout of an event no one knew was coming, and while the emotions are just as deep, they feel sharper somehow for being so unexpected.

I definitely recommend this book, and all of John Green's books. He's a very talented writer, and isn't afraid to put “adult” themes into his “young adult” books. As if sex and alcohol and death and deep meaning-of-life questions aren't things every teenager deals with? I like that he doesn't pull his emotional punches. His books may be “young adult” but they're not fluffy or “easy to read.” Easy in terms of grammar and flow perhaps, but not in content. I teared up reading parts of Looking For Alaska, and outright sobbed for a good portion of The Fault In Our Stars. (Which is now being made into a movie!)

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

Looking for Alaska is a novel that has me conflicted. In fact, I haven't been this conflicted since I read Feed by M.T. Anderson. On the one hand, I really like this book, especially after rereading it. On the other, I can still see why I hated this book the first time I read it. Still, regardless of the fact that it is a novel that I have some gripes about, I still think that this is a novel that tells about the beauty and the journey of friends in a boarding school.

Miles ‘Pudge' Halter is a boy who is seeking the Great Perhaps in his life and he meets with The Colonel and Alaska, who, together show him how to get out of the Labyrinth. I think that the best thing about this book is the relationship between all of the main characters in the novel. They all seem to be people who could actually exist (with the exception of Alaska, who we will get to later) These characters each have their own personalities and ideas about the future. I particularly like how they go about dealing with the Pranks against the Weekday Warriors. Then, I also like many of the different classics that Green takes us to. I really think that Green made the setting a very interesting place to see overall. And perhaps that is because he went there in real life. The school Pudge goes to is based on an actual school that John Green attended. One of the problems that I had when I first read the book is that it seemed like he was trying to relive the past and the memories of this old boarding school, but now I don't think that is the case. I think that this novel is still very well written when describing the setting and the characters.

Except for one character: Alaska. She is just one character that I could not see as really existing in the real world. She is just too odd to even be considered real. I can't understand how a person like her could live for 18 years or so and not be heavily medicated or diagnosed with some type of mental condition. This is mostly why I give it the rating I did. Alaska is fun to read, bringing humor and excitement to the story, but she is still too wacky to be considered real, and that does take me out of the story.

I also didn't like the scene early on in the book where the Religion Teacher just sends Pudge out of his class for daydreaming. I realize that this is an example of authoritarian teaching, and that he (the teacher) might need to feel like he has to assert his authority as a teacher over his students due to his age and disability, but still. I think that scene should have been written differently.

When I first read the story, I didn't like the after section, I thought what the characters were doing was stupid and dumb because I knew their search was in vain. Now however, I realize what Green was trying to symbolize with both Pudge and The Colonel, and I think that the After section is done wonderfully. Without going into spoilers, I must say that, even knowing what was going to happen, I felt emotion when I re-read that passage again, and that says something about the writing power of John Green. His writing style is one that I like and I will want to read in more books.

I think you'll like this book if you are into books about boarding schools class pranks and fun times with good friends. I really came to care for these characters and I think you will too. I give it a four out of five.