Thursday 28 January 2016

Book Review: Looking for Alaska

Published December 28, 2006  
Goodreads Summary: 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. 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.


Looking for Alaska by John Green is a young adult fiction novel. As with every John Green book it just blew my mind. His specific and very detailed narration always pull me full in which results in me reading the book for hours and hours until I've finished it. As always after reading a book of John's I had a lot to think about after the ending and couldn't move on to a new book right away. John's skills to make a reader completely dissolve into his world is still astounding because that's a skill not a lot of authors master. 

The summary provided above was the same I read before buying the book. Looking back it's actually quite delusory because you might think it's a love story between Pudge and Alaska and you might expect a relationship similar to Hazel and Augustus' (The Fault in Our Stars). Now, I know that they never actually have a relationship and are together with other people, although Pudge really has fallen for her. The story ends with an unexpected turn when Alaska has a fatal accident and from here on we actually see how much Pudge really liked her. 

'We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations.' - John Green 

This is one of my favourite quotes from the book. After finishing Looking For Alaska it just spoke to me and since then I couldn't get it out of my mind. In honor of Pudge's obsession with famous last words to finish this blog post I'll tell you his: I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful.


I recommend this book to fans of Eleanor & Park and every John Green lover.