“Looking for Alaska” by John Green: Book Review
March 18, 2022
Miles Halter is a young boy from Florida who is very interested in people’s last words, especially Francios Rabelais’s words “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” Miles is about to attend a new school in Alabama, Culver Creek, where he hopes to find his “Great Perhaps.” He’s been living in Florida with his parents in his small world and is ready for a change. He arrives to meet his roommate Chip Martin, otherwise known as the Colonel. Miles gets to meet the Colonel’s friends, Takumi and Alaska Young, who seems to be the life of the party or the trouble. Miles experiences new things he’s never done before now: love, friendship, and loss. But one night everything goes wrong and everyone is awakened to life-changing news.
“Looking for Alaska” was overall a great book. I loved how the story was written, had great details and the storyline was amazing. The plot of the story was very detailed, interesting, and impulsive because the chapters are told as days before a major event so each day has something new going on and there is never a dull moment in the book. The author, John Green, does a great job of showing the struggles of what childhood trauma or guilt can do to a teen which was represented by Alaska Young, who struggled with drinking and smoking and is just disorganized and very impulsive with her decisions because she has borderline personality disorder.Borderline personality disorder impacts the way you think and feel about yourself as well as others resulting in causing problems with functioning everyday life. Alaska went through a lot in her life but that never got in the way when it came to having a good time, she always made a simple hangout out of the ordinary. Miles Halter was a shy kid with no friends before he went to Culver Creek. Miles went out of his comfort zone and tried new things such as going out, pranking,dating, and breaking some rules all thanks to Alaska who pushed him out of his comfort zone. Alaska had an huge impacted on all of her friends everyone of them she helped get out of their comfort zones. He got to experience the highschool friendships and the relationships that would blossom. It also shows what the effect loss can have on a person but the way it can bring others together and the way young love can blossom from anywhere with anyone.
John Green is the New York Times bestselling author. He has won the 2006 Printz Award for Looking for Alaska and has more of his books on the New York Times Best Seller list.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves young romance, mysteries, and any other book written by John Green because of the love that is shown between Alaska and Miles, the mystery of Alaska’s life, and who ratted out on Marya and Paul.