Review: Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska
By John Green

Summary: 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.

Review: Since I started reading Young Adult novel's one the most common names I would always hear was John Green. Of course I had to look into all the hype. I've  since started watching the Vlog brothers videos (which are one of my favorite Youtube channels now), I've even met John Green in person (at BEA) and I also own all of his novels (most of them signed). When one of my close friends finished Looking for Alaska she FINALLY convinced me to picked it up to read. Now I know what all the hype is about. This is one of those books that deserves every single raving review it has gotten so far. 

My favorite part of Looking for Alaska was the characters. Each one is so distinct and different. The main character Miles was so relatable. He felt so lonely and dislocated from his first school in the beginning of the novel. As he transfers to the boarding school and meets Alaska and her friends, you can feel the changes in Miles as he fits in. The reader also starts to care about Alaska and the Colonel as Miles does. Everything in this book makes you emotional. 

Looking for Alaska is one of those books that is so truthful and real. The characters acted like real teenagers, they weren't fluffed over to make them sound better and more careful. This is a novel that everyone can relate to and feel. John Green just has a way of words that gets to you. This is a novel that you can't put down. 

Also John Green has to be the coolest author ever. Not only does he sign so many books. (he really seems to like signing his name everywhere), he also has one of the best youtube channels, and he had one of the best notes at the end of a book. I have a really bad habit of reading the back of the book before I start the novel. I don't know why, I know it's bad. Yet I can't stop. When I flipped to the back of Looking For Alaska I found an interview with John Green. Before the interview he basically said, I know you're here without reading the book first and not to do it. I laughed but kept reading, but then he purposely kept out all spoilers, commenting on how he knew readers were going to keep reading. I loved how he did that and because of it, I went back to the front with no idea what the 'big change' was going to be.

Everyone has to read this book. That's all I have to say. 

p.s. This is a tissue book. You will need tissues, and probably a whole box of them. 

--Danielle