Through the Looking Glass: Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska by: John Green
Publication Date: March 3, 2005
Publisher: Puffin
Page Count: 221
Format: Paperback
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
Buy the Book: Amazon

Summary from Goodreads:

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.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

My Review:

When I finally opened this book, I didn't know what to expect. I was blown away. There wasn't a moment when I wasn't giving Looking for Alaska my full, undivided attention.

Attending Culver Creek was the best thing to happen to Miles. He was living an uneventful shell of a high school life. When meeting Alaska, the Colonel, Takumi, and Lara he transformed into a person willing to take risks and mess up. It was great seeing him grow into himself like that.

Alaska and Miles had strange and wonderful chemistry. Alaska had a boyfriend in college but honestly I don't think that affected her and Miles much. She was acting bipolar and crazy most of the time, and Miles half-hated her. This made for the one of the most complex relationships I've encountered because the other half of him loved her more.

Alaska was a troubled soul. Still, she is an imprint left on every reader in some way, I think. For me, I got a closer look at what makes people the way they are and learned that every moment can mean a lifetime.

Official Rating: