Today's post is a review of Looking For Alaska by John Green. John Green is a best selling author who is also a well known Youtuber as one half of the duo, VlogBrothers with his brother Hank Green.
Let's dive into the review.
Title: Looking For AlaskaAuthor: John Green
First Publication Year: 2005
Publisher: Harper Collins
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17416065-looking-for-alaska
Plot Summary: Miles Halter believes that his life is pretty average and so he convinces his parents to enrol him in a boarding school in Alabama where he hopes to find where he belongs as well as a bit of excitement. After befriending some fellow misfit classmates, Miles meets the beautiful Alaska Young and instantly becomes intrigued by her. Knowing that Alaska is already taken, How is Miles going to stop himself from falling completely in love with this mind blowing girl.
Full Review: Let’s start out by mentioning that I personally felt like this book was pretty average but in saying this, there were things about it that I did enjoy.
I really liked the main premise as it is about a boy who is just trying to figure out where he fits in the world although I did find Miles as a character to be quite annoying at times despite knowing that the main plot was to help him find his place. There are a lot of interesting characters in the story and I enjoyed reading about all their different personalities as they helped create a more engrossing self-discovery story through their own stories. I especially loved the friendship between the three unlikely friends as each of their personal quirks added to the group. It shows that people are still able to connect even with their differences which is definitely something I can relate to.
A really amazing aspect of this book was Miles’ obsession with famous last words. This gets mentioned a lot throughout the novel as he would state some last words that seem relevant to an event that was occurring. It is a great addition to the plot as it adds a bit of history to the story as readers get to learn about famous figures as well as the final words they said before they died and for some reason, I really loved it. There is also a lot of referencing to literature such as poems and classic novels as well as talks about the authors. I always love reading about books within books and found it to be really great whenever a new book was referenced. Reading about them in this book, made me want to read them myself once I was finished.
This book also has so much mystery surrounding it which was really fascinating as I would constantly find myself wondering what was going on in certain events or what particular characters were talking about. It’s always fun to try and predict what the answers might be to the questions that are brought forward in the beginning. From the very first page, there is already a question about the headings of each chapter which is in a form of a countdown (with the first being “One Hundred and Thirty-six Days Before) but to what? As it got closer to the end of the final day before, my head was filled with questions which I found to be really awesome, I like not knowing where a story is heading especially when it’s obvious that something major is about to happen. In saying this though, the build-up was much more exciting for me than the actual event that it leads to. I don’t want to spoil anything but It just wasn't something that I was expecting from the beginning or something I enjoyed being added to the plot.
I really liked John Green’s writing in this book as it flowed really well and was really easy to read and understand but despite that I was not able to get into the story until about half way through after more events occur. The writing is very detailed with such quirky and intellectual dialogue between the characters but it was hard for me to relate or connect to the story until it got more intriguing around the middle section. I am still interested in reading John Green’s other books as I've heard that they are fantastic.
As I got further into the book I began to compare this book to Perks of Being a Wallflower as they share a lot of the same character types as well as also being a coming of age tale. I also had the same problem with that book as I did with this one where I was unable to feel the story until about half way through.
Overall, Looking For Alaska is a good book and is a must read for all John Green fans but for me it was just simple with some twists that weren't mind blowing. It was still a fun read despite the issues I had and I would still recommend it. I'm hoping the next book I read of Green’s will be more up my alley.
Star Rating: 3/5 Stars!
I hope you're all having a wonderful day!
~Louise
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