Looking For Alaska

 

Looking For Alaska

Written by John Green

Originally published in 2005
About 221 pages
Rate: 9/10

My summary of Looking For Alaska

Miles doesn't really like his high school experience at public school so he decides he wants to attend the same boarding school as his father did in search of something greater. At just sixteen years of age he switches his whole life around once he meets his new friends. Miles has as I like to call the college experience. He starts smoking, drinking, sneaking around, and partying with friends. 

His roommate named Chip introduces him to a girl named Alaska as well as a couple of other friends. Alaska likes to act super edgy and their friends occasionally get annoyed by her drama. Everyone at the school loves a good prank and so Miles friends constantly have to prank or get pranked.

It's a story made for teens, but with new adult elements.

My thoughts on Looking For Alaska

It seems like John Green really loves the nerdy boy + mysterious depressed girl combo. Looking for Alaska was very similar to his other book Paper Towns. For example, the pranks, the girl who wants to escape her reality/ wants more in life, teenagers, nerdy boy. I haven't read Paper Towns in a while, so I don't remember everything, but I remember enough to make it feel like I was reading the same story, but with a different setting and characters. Not to say that stories like this aren't good. As you can see I gave it a 9/10 rating.

The reason why I didn't love this book was because of Alaska, she seemed so unimportantly deep. The fact that she was just messing with Miles when she was flirting was so sad and annoying. I think that what happened to her within the story was sad, but very poetic. The things she told Miles had a great impact on him and the story, but she is supposed to be the story. I just wish she wasn't as mysterious because it was kind of cringe during some moments.

I also think it's weird when teenagers act like adults. I mean, I know that everyone goes at their own pace in life, but sixteen year olds acting like twenty-two year olds just seemed so odd to me. I don't like stories where the kids think they are all grown up just because they smoke every hour and drink once. Maybe it's because I don't find it reliable so I have a hard time connecting with it.

The reason I gave it a 9/10 is because of the ending. Everything was wrapped up in the end, mostly. The ending was so impactful, instead of Miles just being an observer, he finally opens his eyes to what happened to him this year. In the end, everything made sense, everything that happened, happened for a reason.

Quotes

"I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the ground with their intensity. But for now, at least I knew such people, and they needed me, just like comets need tails." (49)

"People wanted security. They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, couldn't bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldn't even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in an afterlife because they couldn't bear not to." (100)

"It was not enough to be the last guy she kissed. I wanted to be the last one she loved. And I knew I wasn't." (171)

"After all this time, it seems to me like straight and fast is the only way out--but I choose the labyrinth. The labyrinth blows, but I choose it." (216)

"If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can't know better until  knowing better is useless." (218)

"I believe now that we are greater than the sum of our parts." (220)

Links

Link to Barnes and Noble: Looking for Alaska

John Green's website: John Green