Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Paperback book
Page count: 221
Publisher: The Penguin Group
Miles “Pudge” Halter is abandoning his safe-okay, boring-life. Fascinated by the last words of famous people, Pudge leaves for boarding school to seek what a dying Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.”
Pudge becomes encircled by friends whose lives are everything but safe and boring. Their nucleus is razor-sharp, sexy, and self-destructive Alaska, who has perfected the arts of pranking and evading school rules. Pudge falls impossibly in love. When tragedy strikes the close-knit group, it is only in coming face-to-face with death that Pudge discovers the value of living and loving unconditionally.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
When I read the title of this book, looking for Alaska, I was curious as to what kind of book this was, is it someone on some trip to look for Alaska, did it have to do with Alaska or what? When really it kind of did, it had to do with a girl who we meet and know and her name is Alaska. I have to say excellent title for a book John Green. Definitely got me curious so I had to read the summary on what it was about and then I was hooked. I was already hooked on the author John Green so I was sure I would be hooked on this book as well, which in a way I kind of was.
Looking for Alaska was a good book, but for some reason I could not get into like I did with, The Fault in Our Stars, with that book I could not put it down, I think I read it in about 3 days this one was a lot longer. I was just a little disappointed that I could not get into like the other, but by the time I got half way into reading it I have to say all that changed. I loved the book. It is an excellent book about love, life, death and the process of realizing what pain and suffering are. Miles Halter is a young boy who is incredibly in love with Alaska Young, a rebellious and mysterious girl who likes books and poetry, finds himself questioning many of his beliefs when tragedy strikes. I love how John Green did a before and after for the book, which was awesome because he showed the characters how they were before and how they are after. I also loved how instead of chapters it went by days, for example 101 days before, then 2 days after etc. Very awesome in my opinion.
In the before section of the book, John Green gives his characters traits that some young people have , I am not talking about fourteen years olds or anything like that I am talking more like sixteen to eighteen year olds. The characters we come to know drink, smoke, and have sex, college kind of things , but all their activities take place at a high school boarding school. Their habits are not all we learn about the, we also learn that they are not just friends, but a close knit group of friends who enjoy hanging out with each other, deal with relationships, attend class , have each others back, they are friends that love having fun, a partying and enjoy the pranking kind of life.
The after portion of the book is an eye opener, at least it was for me because I was not expecting what happened to have happened in that way. Miles, Chip, Takumi, and other characters ( their friends) are not seen they way they were in the before chapters of the book. So much has changed, they almost matured because of what has happened. We are hit with tragedy! The after chapters I think really make the title of the book, Looking for Alaska. The characters, Chip and Miles struggle to come to terms with their loss and lose themselves in a quest to find out what really happened to Alaska. Miles is focused on looking for Alaska, trying to tie up the loose ends of her death that are left behind. Miles is looking for answers to the questions that I myself had when reading this section. Why was she leaving? Was her death truly an accident? What I see is dedicated friends that will do anything in their power to find out happened.
I think that this book is definitely a young adult book, because it deals with teens, drinking, smoking, and sex. Older individuals may not like it as much saying that a young adult book should not have all that kind of stuff in it. I however, am one of the ones that think it is good that John Green added it in his book, because so many young people do drink, have sex, and smoke. Its common, and with the before and after chapters of the book, I can see the results of these things. I feel that Looking for Alaska, is a book that everyone can learn from. This is a brilliant book!!!!
Bookin' Me Crazy 