Pudge comes to Culver Creek Preparatory School in search of a great perhaps. He finds it in the form of gorgeous and gutsy Alaska Young, who changes his life forever.

I'd heard tons of great things about this novel, and I've gotta say, it was very good. I like YA lit that deals with human issues rather than uniquely teenage concerns, and I think John Green does just that. Pudge and his friends are young adults, sure, and many of their experiences have firm ties to that time of life, but their story is something anyone can relate to. They're people, first and foremost, and they deal with the same difficult issues that plague us all.

I really liked Pudge's voice, too. He's open, honest, and just a tad snarky. And he genuinely sounds like a sixteen-year-old guy. If you're anything like me, you've read a few too many YA novels that read like some adult writer's idealized version of a teenager. This ain't one of 'em. Pudge and his friends are the real deal. (And can I step away from my point for a moment and say that I loved their friendships? They felt as real as the characters themselves). What's more, Green never writes down to his target audience. He treats them as capable of dealing with anything he might choose to throw at them. It's a thing of beauty.

And then there's the novel's structure, which works very well indeed. The book is divided into two parts: Before and After. It's an effective means of building tension. We know something's set to go down in t-minus X days. We assume it's going to be terrible, because we all know the formula. And we really, really, really don't want it to happen, because we like Pudge and the Colonel and Alaska and we want them to be happy, dammit. And then it happens, and it's pretty well what we expect, (because this is one of those stories we've all read before), but we're still upset. We all hoped John Green was pranking us, but he's above those sorts of shenanigans. Instead, he gives us a moving commentary on the ways that some events become milestones in our lives.

This is a great book. I really do recommend it. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite love it, but I did like it quite a bit. I got a lot out of it on an intellectual level, and I'm sure it'll stay with me for some time to come. I'm looking forward to reading more of John Green's work in the future.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

Boring.
I've read such books for THOUSANDS of times.
It's all exactly the same story: a boy goes to boarding school. Finds a girl. Falls in love. Can't take her. Takes another girl. The girl he wanted from the beginning takes an interest in him.
Even the differences between this book and the plan above don't make it better or more interesting. This time it was an absolutely ordinary boy (even his obsession with oter people's last word don't change this fact). And the girl he wanted was an absolutely unattractive alcohol- and drug-addicted bitch and whore without any wit and who had ratted her friends. I hate this girl. I hate it when boys fall in love with such bithes.
Honestly, when this bitch Alaska ***attention, there is gonna be a SPOILER!!!!*** diead, I was soo happy! But when it all turned to a whole-school tragedy and into a public nudity, it freaked me out. Suck bithes should not be honored and respected.
I really think it all happened just because the author is male, and men (we all know it) love spoiled bithes and whores. He tried to make her look smart and not so shallow. You see, she was reading "The General in His Labyrinth" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Vonnegut's "Cat's craddle". Just to pick up any book by a famous author and read it again and again for months is NOT smart. Any mental diseased person can do that. ( )

Looking for Alaska is full of quirky characters, which are my favorite types of characters because I don't know anyone who doesn't have a quirk.

Pudge memorizes famous last words.
The Colonel memorizes geographic capitals.
Alaska is mysterious, funny, and trying to figure out how to get out of the labyrinth of suffering.

John splits the book into two parts: Before and After. This separation worked for me because I think many of us separate our lives this way. We see ourselves in the Before, then something happens that changes us forever and we are in the After.

Like John said in his vlog, there is no substitution for emotional connection. Sex doesn't fill that gap. Pudge goes looking for the Great Perhaps and somehow finds it in a dismal, tiny private school where the rich kids and the poor kids are in a constant prank war. He not only finds The Girl and himself. He finds life.

The thing I loved about Pudge's decision to leave his family and few friends for boarding school was that it was selfish. Sometimes being selfish is what needs to be done. People become unhappy and let themselves get into a routine that eats away at them, convincing themselves they can't change anything. But Pudge leaves because he knows that is what he needs to do for himself. So there is a time and place for selfishness, and in the beginning Pudge uses it wisely, and in the end he doesn't. Looking for Alaska shows us how one choice changes everything. ( )

"I go to seek a Great Perhaps." - Francois Rabelais’ last words

Culver Creek, one hundred and thirty six days before…

From the moment the reader is introduced to Looking for Alaska’s protagonist, Miles Halter, we are graced with a charming, naïve and idealistic fifteen-year old, with a penchant for remembering famous figures’ last words. Miles becomes entranced by some of these words, and decides to attend his father’s former boarding school to seek out Rabelais’ Great Perhaps.

So we follow Miles to Culver Creek in rural Alabama. There he meets a motley crew of teenagers; his roommate, Chip, amusingly and appropriately referred to as the “Colonel”, who gives a skinny Miles the nickname “Pudge”; Takumi, the mild-mannered and loyal Japanese rapper; and Lara, the beautiful and sweet Romanian. And it is here, on his first day, that Miles meets Alaska. Sexy, impulsive, and dangerously alluring Alaska. This small group of friends orbits around the enigmatic young misfit, getting themselves into all kinds of harmless mischief, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, breaking curfews and scheming pranks. For Miles, Alaska is unobtainable but addictive, and he is drawn closer and closer into her web of chaos. She catches his attention from the off, the voracious reader bestowing him with the mysterious last words of Simón Bolívar…

"How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?"

After. A shocking event occurs half way through the book that shatters this little world and causes the circle of friends to spin into a whirlwind of emotions; guilt, anger, love, betrayal and grief. Most of all, they learn about loss. The loss of childhood, the loss of before and the shock of after.

There is a beautiful, poignant symmetry to this book. We begin one hundred and thirty six days before, and end one hundred and thirty six days after. In that time, all our characters have traversed a long and difficult journey from adolescence to adulthood, learning about life and love along the way. Interestingly I read this book directly after Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book which, though a completely different story and style of writing, has many parallels in theme to Alaska.

Devastatingly compelling, quietly philosphical and ultimately brutal, Looking for Alaska is possibly the best young adult book I have ever read, and is a remarkable debut for the effervescent John Green who seems to be popping up all over the place (see his blog here). I'm not sure my words will do justice to how I felt about this book. After finishing it, I could not even think about reading another book for over three days (very unlike me), and I still find myself thinking about Alaska now. An absolute joy to read.

A deeply personal coming-of-age tale of what to do when the unthinkable happens. And the ultimate question, as Alaska herself asked. How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?

It was a great book! Way too much drugs, alcohol and sex. ( )