Looking for Alaska

hanli - Looking for Alaska was one of the most brilliant and fascinating books I have ever read. The story was a combination of happiness and sadness. I loved the fact that the author John Green made the tensions of the story build up on each other as I kept reading. The book started off with Miles transferring to Culver Creek Boarding School. He met a few friends, and fell in love with Alaska Young. I enjoyed that a large percentage of the book was describing the everyday life of Miles and his friends at his new school because I liked reading books that were less active and more descriptive. The death of Alaska Young in the middle of the story caught me by surprise. I thought the author did an extremely great job describing Miles and his friends' feelings as they grieved for Alaska. I also thought the pranks they played throughout the story was very creative and original, and I loved reading the reactions of the pranked victims. The ending of Looking for Alaska was very well written. John Green used the last word of Thomas Edison, which finished the story perfectly. I felt a mixture of feelings as I read this book. Sometimes I felt proud for Miles when he made accomplishments, other times I felt sad with the characters inside the story. In my opinion, Looking for Alaska was the most successful book written by John Green, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a great novel.

February 7, 2005
This ambitious first novel introduces 16-year-old Miles Halter, whose hobby is memorizing famous people's last words. When he chucks his boring existence in Florida to begin this chronicle of his first year at an Alabama boarding school, he recalls the poet Rabelais on his deathbed who said, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Miles's roommate, the "Colonel," has an interest in drinking and elaborate pranks—pursuits shared by his best friend, Alaska, a bookworm who is also "the hottest girl in all of human history." Alaska has a boyfriend at Vanderbilt, but Miles falls in love with her anyway. Other than her occasional hollow, feminist diatribes, Alaska is mostly male fantasy—a curvy babe who loves sex and can drink guys under the table. Readers may pick up on clues that she is also doomed. Green replaces conventional chapter headings with a foreboding countdown—"ninety-eight days before," "fifty days before"—and Alaska foreshadows her own death twice ("I may die young," she says, "but at least I'll die smart"). After Alaska drives drunk and plows into a police car, Miles and the Colonel puzzle over whether or not she killed herself. Theological questions from their religion class add some introspective gloss. But the novel's chief appeal lies in Miles's well-articulated lust and his initial excitement about being on his own for the first time. Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author. Ages 14-up.