Looking for Alaska by John Green

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Series: Stand Alone 
Source: Personal Copy
Format: Paperback 
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Synopsis (from B&N):

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.

Who can predict that some final words could give a huge impact in one person’s life? “I go to seek a Great Perhaps” were the last words said by François Rabelais. This single sentence appears to inspire a young man, Miles “Pudge” Halter, to move few steps forward, leaving behind his old life and enrol to a boarding school in searching for his own brand of “Great Perhaps”. At the Culver Creek, he finds some close friends: The Colonel, his roommate, Lara Buterskaya, a shy Romanian, Takumi, a crazy Japanese and last but not least, Alaska, the girl who he begins to love silently.

Written in two parts, the “Before” and the “After”, with one pivotal event, Looking for Alaska chronicles the journey made by Pudge and his friends as they face the ups, the downs and the inevitable in the rough route that they call “life”. What is this “Great Perhaps”? And will the event that occurs manage to make Pudge able to understand and to grasp the real meaning of the “Great Perhaps” better in the end?

Judging by his excellent writing and the way he swiftly tackles the intricate subject in this book, no one would believes that Looking for Alaska is actually the first work by John Green. Written in such realistic manner, Green makes it easier for readers to relate to the characters that he creates in his book and further understand such trials that they have to go through. This relatabilty, along with bunch of interesting, real characters and crisp storylines make this book an incredibly great read.

Miles, in my opinion, is one of the most ordinary protagonists out there. He seems clueless about almost everything on his first day at Culver Creek and it looks like his bunch of “colourful” friends are the ones that start shaping and introduce him to the real world. I wouldn’t say that all the things that they teach him are good things, but nonetheless, they help him to spread his wings and gets himself out of his own cocoon. Another character that I find very interesting is Alaska herself. She is really brilliant but also incredibly torn at the same time. These factors make her somewhat unpredictable and Mile’s description on Alaska in the book sure tells a lot: “So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

For such a thin book, Looking for Alaska certainly is fat with messages that relate to valuable aspects in life. It is a book about love, friendship, loyalty, regrets, grief and route to maturity. Dashes of last words used by the author, peppers with some religion references help enhancing the storyline all together. This book indeed comes with some great messages but it all depends on the readers on how they want to perceive it. An incredible read that I would recommend to all.

Favourite Quote: It's not life or death, the labyrinth. Suffering. Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering? - Alaska Young

This book totally takes me by surprise. It begins with something light, then gets to the climax with a BAM and ends with a philosophical ending. John Green did a brilliant job in capturing how it is like to be a young, insecure and friendless teen. I'd certainly recommended this book to those that enjoy books that make you think.