Looking for Alaska by John Green

Summary:

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

My review:

“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.”


The Fault in our stars is one of my favorite books of all time and it made me fall in love with John Green s writing. Sure, it was sad and it made me cry almost from the very beginning but the writing was so beautiful, I almost wanted to quote every sentence and in the end, the book with cancer and death was the book that celebrated life. That is why I decided to read every John Green book and I started with Looking for Alaska. Beautiful, depressing, unhappy mischievous Alaska Young is the main female character and she is the girl of Miles Halter s dreams. Miles, or Pudge, transfered to a boarding scool, the school his father went to, to find his Great Perhaps, of which Francios Rabelais spoke before he died. Pudge is obsessed with last words so he read biographies to learn everyones dying words. There he firts meets his roomate, Chip or The Colonel, who becomes his best friend and who introduces him to Alaska Young. He is smitten from the moment he sees her but things are rarely that simple. She is a complicated girl who also has a boyfriend so she is off limits and sometimes her mood swings annoy the hell out of Pudge but she is still one of a kind. And she has a reason for her behaviour which is heartbreaking. And so is this book. I loved every word, every sentence, every character and I connected to them. The friendship of Pudge, The Colonel, Alaska, Takumi and sometimes Lara was poetic, unbreakable and a big adventure. The book while sometimes depressing had some funny moments, like the cheering for a basketball team and Takumi and his fox hat. I can honestly say that this book among 1493 I read in my life is in my top 10 favorites and that it will stay with me forever.
Looking for Alaska is divided into two parts: Before and After. Both riveting, written perfectly yet so different. What is After? I hope you read it and find out. Even among all the tears I shed while reading, this book truly is a gift.

“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.”