Review - Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska by John Green


Amazon Link
Goodreads Link

Page Count: 221 Pages
Overall Rating: 4 Stars

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps. 

    I will start out by saying this: Looking for Alaska is a slightly vulgar novel. There's a lot of casual cursing and drinking and talk of drugs and talk of sex. Some people, those of you who are not comfortable with reading those things, might not want to read this. I can honestly say that it didn't bother me nearly as much as it normally would've, because I feel like, in this case, it pertains to the novel. I don't think the characters swore just to be swearing. I honestly think it was a fairly necessary thing. Looking for Alaska is gritty, but in a wonderful sort of way.
    It's going to be hard to review this one without ranting. It kind of leaves you breathless and it's one of those books you just need to hand to someone and the only thing you can say is, "read this." You know?
    Also, this will sound silly, but I can't think of a book with a cover that represents its book any better than this one. That probably sounds extremely strange, considering that it's mainly a curl of smoke, but that's a good way to think of this book, I think. Actually, that's a good way to think of Alaska, in my opinion.
    The writing, while gritty, is flawless and amazing and, overall, beautiful. If you don't believe me on that one, check out the quotes on goodreads (Warning: There's probably going to be some spoilers...). It's rough around the edges, but, in an odd way, sort of lovely at the same time.
    I'm sure a lot of you guys have read this one, considering that it's kind of old and popular, but I hadn't and I don't know that I would've if I hadn't had multiple people, to some extent, put the book in my hands and tell me to read it. I'm glad that I read it, because it's one of those books that will, whether you agree with it or not, change you. There's a lot of symbolism and awesomeness in this book and you just have to read it to understand.
    I'll be looking into some other John Green novels, because I'm very interested in what else this writer has to say. And that's a bit more than I can say for some others.

 

Songs I listened to while reading: