John Green - Looking For Alaska.

John Green – Looking For Alaska

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Hi everyone! It feels like forever since I posted a review. I am enjoying this so much. The book community is full of such beautiful, kind people. I’m so glad I stumbled into it. Today’s review is on a book that broke my heart into pieces and then restored my faith in friendship right afterwards. Looking for Alaska by John Green is truly beautiful. Here are some more in depth thoughts on it.

Synopsis:

Miles Halter’s whole life has been one big non-event, until he meets Alaska Young.

Gorgeous, clever and undoubtedly screwed up, Alaska draws Miles into her reckless world and irrevocably steals his heart. For Miles, nothing can ever be the same again.

A little about the author:

John Green is an award-winning, Number One New York Times bestselling author whose many accolades include the Printz Medal, a Printz Honour, and the Edgar Award. He has twice been a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize.

A little about the story:

This story follows Miles Halter and his new life at Culver Creek Boarding School. We watch along as he makes new friends, new love interests and finally kind of finds himself.

The story is about Alaska, as you can see from the title. At first I didn’t see why the book was named after her. She wasn’t the character that was in the book most. It didn’t make sense to me when I was younger but now it does. To me it seems that this book looks into the effect Alaska has on others. How she holds the group together and changes each person within the friendship group. This may not have been the intention of Green, but I saw it like this, and I loved it.

The main characters in this book were Miles, Alaska, The Colonel and Takumi. This was the core friendship within the book. The bond between these four teenagers, and how together they navigate joy, heartache and the terrors of youth.

Miles is new to Culver Creek. The rest of the group all knew each other beforehand. We watch as he comes into his own and finally has friends, something we know from the beginning, he did not have until he went away to boarding school. In his first year at the school he has more adventures and experiences than anyone could dream of. It encourages people to push themselves into a new experience, to do everything they can while they’re young because life is too precious.

The main problem in this book is a massive spoiler that I am 100% not going to share. The gist of it is getting through heartache and grief whilst young and trying to navigate high school. How friendships can help you through the toughest time you will ever experience.

The whole story is an adventure. Miles’ adventure. He goes from a sheltered boy, having experienced only the inside of autobiographies, to a boy who was wonderful friends, magnificent tales to tell, and a whole life.

My favourite character of course was Alaska Young. She is so complex and beautiful and I fell in love with her the same way everyone in the book did. There’s something so relatable in her, and the way she was broken. How she was a completely different person inside than she was out. And the battles she was fighting in her head and heart. I truly loved her.

The character I related to most out of this story was probably Miles. As much as I want to say I lived like Alaska, I do not. I am sheltered, I have so little experiences and could do with being out of my comfort zone. Miles character is encouraging for someone like me, seeing that we can have these experiences. It is never too late to try something new.

A lot of the feelings put forward in the story are ones I have felt personally when I was a teenager. It felt like it could be a true story. Some stories have parts that are so unrealistic, this wasn’t one of them. I felt the happiness, I felt the awkwardness of teenage interactions, I felt the grief, so much, and I felt the youthful optimism.

I loved this book. It is one on the list of books that I recommend to absolutely everyone. It was relatable, it was emotional, and it was extraordinary. Thankyou John Green. Thankyou for Alaska and her bigger than life self and managing to put into words how complicated life is as a teenager.

My favourite part of the book was thanksgiving dinner. I don’t want to give it away, but the way they all ended up together on thanksgiving warmed my heart and reminded me of my own friends.

I recommend this book to everyone, it is a beautiful story that deserves to be told to everyone. As far as what type of person would like this book, it is generally aimed towards the young adult group. Teenagers would find this relatable, and maybe even those moving away from home for the first time, moving away to university, living with friends instead of parents. It is a story for people afraid of new experiences. Most of all it’s a story for people that aren’t afraid to cry.

I hope this review helped you in your decision on whether to read the book or not. And if you have already read it, I hope I wrote some things you agreed with. If not I’d love to hear what you thought about it!

Stay Curious!

J x