Book Review: Looking For Alaska by John Green

What it’s about:

Alaska Young. Gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, screwed up – and utterly fascinating. Miles Halter could not be more in love with her. But when tragedy strikes, Miles discovers the value and the pain of living and loving unconditionally.

Nothing will ever be the same.

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Review:

This won’t be a long review because I’m sure every good thing that could possibly be said about John Green’s books has already been said a thousand times over and to be honest, I kinda of run out of things to say about his work and end up turning into this great big gushing mess. Looking For Alaska is a coming of age story about Miles aka. Pudge who has just moved from home into college. Previously friendless, there he meets the Colonel and Takumi who become his close friends and of course, the mysterious Alaska, who he’s completely in love with. But when disaster strikes one day, Miles realises that he never really knew Alaska, he probably never will and his life will never be the same again.

The thing that draws me straight into John Green’s books – not just this one, all of them – is his outstanding way of putting you, the reader, in the main characters shoes and allowing you to see their life, their friends and their experiences through their eyes. I don’t know how he does it but whenever I read one of his books, I get an entirely different perspective on life and end up walking around in some sort of haze for the time in which I was reading it. I see things different and I feel things differently and I realise I think things I never thought I’d think and that’s one of the main reasons his books sit so well with me. This one was no different, I was instantly transported into Culver Creek, where Miles went to school and lived through the words of Miles for that short space of time in which I was reading.

I absolutely love how John writes in his heroines and although they do tend to share similar traits, that’s what I like about it. They’re all so dominant and confident and beautifully messed up – I admire every single one of them. Alaska was a fantastic character; funny, courageous and completely and utterly broken. She had such a unique insight into life, death and the “labyrinth” and I, for some unknown reason, was actually envious of this poor girl who had so much life but so many demons in her. I understand that not everyone might “get” John Green’s books – I don’t think they were intended for everyone in the entire world to understand and relate to but I stand by what I say and will always consider John Green an absolute genius. He’s no Charles Dickens, but his words are clever and full of wisdom and I think he can relate to young people in a way not many others can and that’s important.

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