{Review} Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska
by John Green
Pages: 231
Release Date: December 26, 2006
by Speak (an imprint of Penguin)

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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. Then 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.

This was the first book by John Green that I’ve ever read, and I wasn’t sure what to expect…but it definitely wasn’t what happened in this book!  This book was dark, entertaining, emotionally scarring…and kind of awesome.  First off, John Green’s writing is absolutely beautiful.  The way he described the characters and the setting was just amazing, and the story line flowed perfectly.  I honestly thought I had this whole book figured out, and I thought I knew how it would end…but I was so wrong.  So, so, so wrong.  I couldn’t believe that ending.  [SPOILER: When he was counting down the numbers till some day the whole book I was expecting it to be when Pudge would tell Alaska that he loved her, not when she would die.  That completely threw me, and gosh it was sad. ]

This book has some really awesome characters.  One thing that I think YA lacks is really flawed, messed up characters.  Like in Silver Linings Playbook, Pat and Tiffany are so messed up, but they’re two of my all-time favorite characters.  This book had some really messed up characters, and it was hard to read about them, but I enjoyed it, if that makes sense.  Pudge was a good main character, and he really developed over the course of the story, turning from a weak, anti-social loner to a stronger, has-3-best-friends kind of guy.  Alaska I really liked.  She was strong, she was confident…but she was also crazy, and even though I thought that, I really appreciated her as a character.  The Colonel was a big part of the book as well, and I really loved his character.  He was a good, strong supporting character who had his own issues, and made the book very interesting.

I was very impressed with this book, and I know that John Green is a very popular author, so I will definitely be reading his other books.  But seriously, if all his book are as heartbreaking as this one…I’m going to need some therapy.

3 stars