Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska follows the ordinary story of a boy by the name of Miles "Pudge" Halters. In his chaotic first year at Culver Creek Boarding School, he meets many people who guide him in his search for himself, including Chip Martin and Alaska Young. Alaska is the wild, beautiful, intelligent, moody, mysterious, unattainable girl with whom Miles falls irrevocably in love. Alaska’s character was who kept me reading.

The book is divided between Before and After and I did not know what is going to be the pivotal point of divide until it hits but there is an inescapable sense of dread as the days pass, building the After.

The Before is made up of routine, of monotony, of mundane happenings: kids going to classes, coming up with pranks, drinking, smoking, doing stupid things, hooking up and talking to each other about Stuff like Simón Bolívar’s last words:

‘How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?”

So what’s the labyrinth?’ I asked her…

That’s the mystery, isn’t it? Is the labyrinth living or dying? Which is he trying to escape- the world or the end of it?”

This “labyrinth” becomes a central discussion encompassing all characters at one point when the ‘After’ comes. That’s when the book loses the mundane and reaches the momentous. And it is a grave, serious, painful and genuine journey until we are able to close the book.

Looking for Alaska is a heart-wrenching novel that poses thought-provoking questions about life, death, and true love.

Death is a complicated matter, suicide is even more complicated, and there is no all-encompassing answer that can make the loss of a friend an easy process to go through. Green, however, provides a text that may help teenagers get through this process if they sadly have to go through it themselves. Regardless of whether or not a reader of “Looking for Alaska” has lost a loved one, they will certainly connect with Green’s characters and their attempts to make their lives as meaningful as possible.

A novel that is nearly impossible to put down. This is probably John Green’s most serious and thoughtful book which is to say a lot, because all of his books are to some extent, serious and thoughtful.

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