Looking For Alaska

Looking For Alaska

John Green

 Goodreads

Summary: Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

                                                       After. Nothing is ever the same. (Via Goodreads)

Ever since I read, and loved, The Fault in Our Stars I haven’t loved any other John Green as much. Looking for Alaska has an amazing story line. But I believe it could have been developed farther. The last words thing was insanely clever yet wasn’t called upon that much yet at the same time was how the main character, Pudge, defined himself.

Confession: Writing a critical review of a John Green book is hard. Okay back to reviewing…

I couldn’t connect to this book. I think it was the POV. Some male POV I can connect with, ie: Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Day, but Pudge not as much.  I wish we had alternate POV between Pudge and Alaska. I found Alaska to be an amazing charchter. Her dynamics were incredible and I wish we got to see some chapter form her POV.

This book was fairly funny. When I pick up a John Green book I know what to expect, crying, sadness, hardships, and not happy go lucky penguins

So this book was what I expected as far as humor goes. The feelings were spot on, per usual for a John Green book.

Characters:

Pudge: last words, Alaska Pudge is an interesting character. Before he transferred schools to Culver Creek he had no friends and was the “weird” kid at school. When he arrived at Culver Creek he made friends immediately, while he wasn’t a “popular” kid he still immediately joined a strong, tight knit group of people. While I understand he couldn’t be wandering around by himself for a while it didn’t ring true.

Alaska: getting away, Jake, her non-existent/broken/mixed up family Alaska was my favorite character in the entire book. Yet she had crazy emotional swings that were never fully explained. She was a character of opposites. She was an amazing friend and played with your emotions as is they ere play-do, she was creative and original yet a carbon copy of other girls.

Verdict:

3.5 stars

I read this book mostly because it was a John Green book. I am glad I read it but I don’t believe I should have put so high on my “to read” shelf.