LOOKING FOR ALASKA BOOK REVIEW

Title: Looking For Alaska

Author: John Green

Published: 2005

First drink, first prank, first friend, first girl, last words! A poignant and moving crossover novel about making friends and growing up from American author, John Green. Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words — and tired of his safe, boring and rather lonely life at home. He leaves for boarding school filled with cautious optimism, to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps. Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another.

The story follows Miles (Pudge) as he attempts to reinvent himself at a new school, with new friends and new experiences (smoking, drinking, dating). But he gets more than he bargained for when he meets Alaska Young, with her witty charm and too-good-to-be-true carefree attitude.

I loved how the book continued after Alaska’s mysterious death. There was so much more to feel at that point. It left Miles and all of Alaska’s friends lost and confused, struggling without closure, questioning who she really was.

Unexpected plot twists pull you in. As do the numbering of the chapters, which are a countdown that hints to some big event toward the end.

I could relate to Looking for Alaska because the characters felt real. And while the book drew me in emotionally, the story still had a sense of humour that speaks to readers my age.

Although the book reaches from suspense to sadness, I enjoyed every moment. Looking for Alaska is another fantastic John Green book and that means that there is a lot of food for thought, a great narrator, and the usual, great writing that I have come to expect from this author.