Book Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter’s whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the “Great Perhaps” (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, 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, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. 

After. Nothing is ever the same.

Looking for Alaska is in fact not a book about someone searching for Alaska the state. Alaska is a story about Miles aka Pudge and his journey to find the Great Perhaps. Pudge is a supremely smart teenager who gets into a prestigious high school, and that is where the story begins. This was not unlike Perks of being a Wallflower, but it’s a different tone and not as heartfelt or heart wrenching. 

I enjoyed the first half of the book. I thought the characters were developed really well. I felt connected to Pudge. I loved the story line, even know it was about their high school career with no other plot points. I was enjoying reading about their shenanigans and remembering my own somewhat tamer high school days. However I was not nearly as smart as these kids. And then the bottom drops out of the story. For the second half of the book the tone is totally depressing. The characters and story really stop all development and I really didn’t like it. It was hard to read because it felt like it was going nowhere. It was for lack of a better phrase: quite boring. 

I feel like I am going to get blasted for this review. This book reminds me of something they make you read in school, and every smart person raves that this was a piece of literary genius and will go down in history as so. Typically, I do not tend to enjoy books like that. Like I didn’t really like the Great Gatsby (I know, I know, gasp). If you are into literary classics, this could be the book for you, or maybe you will agree with me? Who knows? Overall I thought this book was ok. 

2.5 Bards