LOOKING FOR ALASKA - JOHN GREEN //

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Looking for Alaska was my very first exposure to the work of John Green, acclaimed author and regular vlogger on YouTube. I had every intention of reading this book from the time I had first heard of it in the seventh grade, but I never got around to it until the summer before my sophomore year of high school. Green won the 2006 Printz Award for this novel, which also happened to be his debut novel. Needless to say, I had high hopes for this book.

The book is about a boy obsessed with last words named Miles who decides to move from a public school in Florida to a boarding school in Alabama. There, he meets his group of friends: the Colonel, his roommate; Takumi, the Colonel’s friend; and the elusive Alaska, their eccentric and mysterious friend. He quickly befriends all of them, and quickly falls in love with his concept of Alaska. He bonds with Alaska over his obsession with “the Great Perhaps” and her preoccupation with “getting out of the labyrinth.” The book is split into two sections: “Before” and “After,” which hints at the existence of a life-altering event. No spoilers here, but the end result is a heart-wrenching, illuminating story that can certainly take your breath away with its various strings of words beautifully crafted into metaphors.

I think this book is wonderful for teenagers because it is written from the perspective from a teenager, and it feels real. There is no censorship in the situations depicted, nor in the dialogue between characters. (Young adult novels that clearly depict little-to-no curse words in conversations between teenagers make me uncomfortable. It feels stiff and fake, and pretending people do not use those words seems evasive.) I will admit that not every teenager in the world discusses death so often, so deeply, and so casually with his or her friends, and neither does every teenager formulate such deep metaphors in everyday conversation. Us teenagers have the ability to do so, but I think we would rather get our point across as easily and as quickly as possible without the complication of hidden meanings. Nevertheless, the rawness and reality of this book does make it so wonderful and such a great choice for teenagers entering high school. 

One gripe I have with the book is the depiction of the stereotypical Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. Not everyone is acquainted with this idea, but if you picture almost every character Zooey Deschanel has portrayed, you have a kindergarden idea of what a MPDG is. John Green says he wrote LFA to deconstruct the MPDG trope, but what I find is that he missed on deconstructing it. Miles fetishizes Alaska as this perfect girl with no flaws, and Alaska is aware of this, even telling Miles that who he loves is not the girl she is. Miles does end the story saying how Alaska is just a girl, but it is clear he doesn’t fully believe this, especially in relation to his actions throughout the novel.

On a number scale of what I would rate this book out of five, I’d say about a 4.3. I love this book and have reread it many times, and I think it’s a lovely story for teenagers and adults alike. It seems real and is very easy to relate to the story, and it doesn’t censor any thought or feeling.

Favorite one-liners: “Entropy increases. Things fall apart.” / “It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn’t the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things.” / “At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze.”