Looking For Alaska- Looking for Love, Loss, and the Great Perhaps
The book Looking for Alaska by John Green tells a classic love story with a twist. Miles "Pudge" has always been a loner and kept to himself before he went away to a boarding school in Alabama. There, he met Alaska Young, a beautiful, interesting yet mysterious girl. Miles has always been interested in learning peoples "last words" and he never thought he would be a part of someones. Miles falls in love with Alaska but watches from a distance as she self destructs. "Ya'll smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die." Miles learned more from Alaska in the small amount of time he spent with her than he ever did in his old, boring life. Miles and Alaska both try to find the answer to the dying words "how will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" of Simon Bolivar, but tragedy strikes and Alaska never finds her answer. The book is organized into "Before" and "After" instead of chapters. There are many other supporting characters but Miles and Alaska are who the story is mainly focused around. Alaska just had something about her that drew people to her and made them want to be around her. The funny thing is Miles is exactly the opposite, but Alaska saw through that.
Overall, this book is beautifully written and left me thinking for days after finishing it. I've read many other similar books but no others really hit me the way this one did. The diversity in characters and the interesting plot made this an amazing read. One thing that bugged me while reading this was just the way Alaska is. This is one of the first times i've read a book and really disliked the main character. She is moody, pretentious, and very self absorbed. She is the only part of this book that is hard to relate to and it was hard to sympathize for her. "Maybe she loved mysteries so much she became one." The way she treated others made it difficult for me to feel the sadness that the other characters felt when the climax of the book happened. Alaska said a lot of beautiful things but her personality just wasn't as attractive. One of my favorite quotes from the book is "You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you will escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, an imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present." I think that quote sums up John Greens writing style and his ability to make you think about your own life while reading a book about others. A wide range of ages would enjoy this book because anyone can relate to it. It is a wonderfully written coming of age story. I would recommend this book over any other John Green book I have read. I think he is a very talented author but this book in specific really hit home with me.Green, John. Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Speak, n.d. Print.
