Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green
SYNOPSIS:
Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy 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. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.
REVIEW:
Okay so I broke a cardinal rule of mine and I read this book based on how great it sounded from reviews. Normally, I will read the first chapter and if I enjoy the book, take my money and lets fall in love with the story. However, with this book (which has rave reviews everywhere) I took it for granted that I would like it.
Now its not that I didn’t like it because it was a good read but if I had the option, I would read something else. The plot line was good, Alaska is the relate-able self destructive teenager and Miles is the awkward teenage boy. This wasn’t a change my life type of read as some reviews stated; however, maybe if I read this during my teenage years my opinion would be different.
I did enjoy reading it though. I liked the love triangle/square that forms and how everything is going back and forth because no one can admit there true feelings. I like the question the book proposes, “How do you get out of the labyrinth?” So for say I wasn’t obsessed with this book but this question had me pondering for days. I wondered how do we end the suffering, how do we end the pain that plagues our hearts? I have to agree with Alaska’s answer, Straight and Fast.
For me I struggle to make up my mind so I applied this question and answer to it. Don’t think, don’t ask what if one million times, don’t regret, make a straightforward decision fast and commit to it. So this was a good read, it was a nice change up to my usual fantasy novels because this book is more realistic. I like the questions and thoughts the book provokes so if you are looking for a change up, I recommend this to you.
FAVORITE QUOTES:
“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”
“Night falls fast. Today is in the past.”
There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow-that, in short, we are all going.
That is the fear: I have lost something important, and I cannot find it, and I need it. It is fear like if someone lost his glasses and went to the glasses store and they told him that the world has run out of glasses and he would just have to do without.
He was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. “Damn it,” he sighed. “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!”
Did I help you toward a fate you didn’t want, Alaska, or did I just assist in your willful self-destruction? Because they are different crimes, and I didn’t know whether to feel angry at her for making me part of her suicide or just to feel angry at myself for letting her go.
BUY THE BOOK:
