Best Sellers Post 10 Book 3 Review: Looking for Alaska **some spoilers**

From just looking at the cover, it would never have been guessed what the book was actually about. Drugs, sex, pranks, partying, first love, tragedy, and mistakes. Those words have teenager written all over them. The true and honest life of teenagers is very well captured through John Green’s book Looking for Alaska.

A roller coaster ride of emotions one might say because it’s almost impossible to assume what’s going to happen next. The part that makes John Green’s book Looking for Alaska so strong is how he tells the book through Miles (Pudge) point of view. The book starts off with him getting sent to boarding school which is where he meets his friends….his first actual friends.  Alaska, Miles (Pudge), Takumi, Laura, and Chip (The Colonel). They are all just a group of friends just looking to live in the moment and have a good time while doing it showing Miles both the sweet and the sour sides of life. Then tragedy strikes and nothing is ever the same. Him being the narrator shows all of the characters though his eyes and how different they are to him. Miles being a new student at Culver Creek is also very interesting again making him as the narrator work because he see’s things in more detail, versus the others who have been at the school for a while and everything is kind of the same to them. For example he is in love with the bullfridos (burritos) at school and describes them in such detail its funny.  When reading the book the characters voices pop off of the page and into your head like a catchy song, which Miles helps to compose.

Looking for Alaska is set starting 136 days before. This is a great way to start off the book because it keeps the reader wondering about what is after the before. Then towards the middle of the book there is a page that says after and from then on everything is marked a certain or certain number of days after the tragic event that happens to Alaska, starting on day 1. This is a very intriguing way to do a piece because it keeps the readers interested about what is happening next

Miles is a very important, relatable character to the readers because he has no friends and is a wall flower for the longest time. Always hiding in the shadows, afraid to come to light and be himself. “I laughed and nodded my head at him (that’s cool, right? The nod?) and said I’m Miles Halter. Nice to meet you” (Green 10).  Although he eventually finds his group of friends and learns it’s nice to be himself and to have genuine friends that care about him even if they get him into a little trouble. Throughout the book Miles grows up quite a lot and learns what it’s like to deal with tragedy and heartbreak. Seeing him progress as a character is very exciting for the reader which is why Miles is such a well written character.

The Colonel can be a very cocky and overly confident character to others. But when he is a friend he protects them to the very end. He is a great believer in loyalty and would never rat anyone out even if they were his enemy because he knows they pay the same respect back. At the beginning of the story he does not come off as a very emotional down to Earth character but as the reader gets to know him throughout the book it is clear he is. “We met and I held him, my hands balled into tight fists around his shoulders, and he wrapped his short arms around me and squeezed tight, so that I felt the heaves of his chest” (Green 214).

 

Alaska is a very crazy and impulsive character. She doesn’t think about anyone but herself when making decisions. Readers often get frustrated with her because of this, and the repercussions that come with her mistakes. “how did this happen? How could she be so stupid! She just never thought anything through. So goddamned impulsive” (Green 145).. This quote shows very clearly that Alaska is a crazy, impulsive, selfish character. Throughout the book Alaska never changes as a character she only becomes more and more impulsive which again frustrates the readers making it one of the weaker points of the story. Alaska, whom instead of going up to the light of life takes a deep spiral down to the unknown and never comes back.

 

This book deserves a 5/5 rating because it was such a true book. It didn’t hold back on raw or inappropriate in some people’s eyes topics. It isn’t a book that’s sugarcoated and sweet, it can be but at most times its raw a bitter telling what real life is like. Now that is a book that deserves a 5/5 stars.