During the school, he is forced out of his routine of being introverted and swathed in his studies. But amongst all of this chaos is Alaska Young, a beautiful and smart girl with erratic emotions.
Miles is drawn to Alaska and she soon confides to him more about her past and her guilt. A story that leaves much up to reader interpretation, this book not only deals with the mischievous escapades of high schoolers, but also the raw confusion and emotion they experience when going through guilt and grief. Why do you think that Green chose to include this detail and what it means for the rest of the book. That being said: what effect do you think Pudge had on Alaska? These adolescent attractors also require a fresh take, however, in order to keep us coming back to each boy meets girl, popularity contest, nerd-transforming episode.
Looking for Alaska still has the potential of a deeply moving, reflective take on transition, mental health, and maturation. Published before its time, the series arrives only once all active themes have long since been exhausted by the modern spotlight.
Then we met Alaska and I go because, who knows? She's really not that bad. Then we really get to know her and I'm like Then ALL this stuff happens and I don't know what to expect, because now we're at the After part, and I'm excited Then BAM!
And I'm like Then I realize its not a joke, and the waterworks start flowing Then I finally calm down And I'm trying to stay strong and remember it's only a book so I'm like Then I can't help myself and go back to ugly crying Then, after all that, I realize View all 34 comments.
Mar 08, Todd rated it did not like it Shelves: 12ss , mature , sad , 12ss-contemporary-realistic. I must've skipped a bunch of pages or read the Hebrew translation or was having root canal or something because that was one terrible book.
All those awards-- WHAT??? Such a clumsy story— every move of the author was heavy-handed and so transparent I felt like I was a fly on John Green's ceiling watching him go "Oh that's good-- oh that's just precious" and fall asleep in his soup again. Miles—I mean "Pudge,"as he is deemed within minutes of his arrival at his School of Great Perhaps— may be looking for Alaska throughout this story but I sure knew her right away.
She's the pretty girl who's even prettier because she's a bit damaged and makes you feel like you have a chance with her because she's a flirt. Yes, she's a hopelessly thin character, as are they all with the exception of The Colonel. Lara, Pudge's first girlfriend, is so bland she is given a Russian accent complete with long e's for short i's "I put the stuff een the gel In fact, each character is carefully provided with a shtick, often a savant-like "talent" that would in reality win game shows but is meant to be That Thing That Makes Him Special: The Colonel can remember capitals of countries to the point of extreme autism!
Pudge knows the last words of famous people— only he's so doggone quirky that he reads the biography but not the work of the famous person!
And our precious Alaska? She keeps stacks and stacks of books in her room that she intends to read when she's done selling cigarettes to high school kids, I guess , called her life library or something , but has wrestled with life's Big Questions alongside some very Heavy Thinking Authors, and can recite poetry, of course. Everybody is way too philosophical and literary for their own good, but god forbid the reader is allowed to think.
Lest you miss the point, every moment is interpreted for you: I finally understood that day at the Jury: Alaska wanted to show us we could trust her. Survival at Culver Creek meant loyalty, and she had ignored that. But then she'd shown me the way. She and the Colonel had taken the fall for me to show me how it was done, so I would know what to do when the time came Ok, then—I guess that's what happened, except that's just not the way high school kids work.
Even word choice reveals fear we won't get it; if an author has to tell you FIVE TIMES in the book that the character "deadpanned" instead of "said" the Colonel"deadpanned" three times and Pudge, just a little less dry I guess, "deadpanned" twice then either the dialogue is not written well or the author believes it is not written well. The former, at least.
So just hanging with these kids leaves one searching for a third dimension, but then the story itself pretty much jumps genres halfway through, from slacker-YA-Holden-mentioned-on-the-back-cover to straight mystery.
Why'd she do what she did? Lest I "spoil" this story for you, I won't go into this part, but suffice it to say the above question is left out in the sun to rot while we are forced to look on, sniffing the decay.
The story doesn't work in any genre anyway. I know what the story is supposed to do— make me fall in love with Alaska, feel all warm and cozy when the four friends smoke cigarettes, shoot the breeze, and look out for one another, and care when one of them screams with cosmic agony, but alas. Maybe if I wasn't basically tapped on the shoulder and demanded these reactions I would be better at having them, but lines fall flat and soggy like cigarettes tossed casually into some cliche prep-school lake: The Colonel let go of my sweater and I reached down and picked up the cigarettes.
Not screaming, not through clenched teeth, not with the veins pulsing in my forehead, but calmly. I looked down at the Colonel and said, "F— you. View all 49 comments. Kayla Alaska was the flattest! Classic manic pixie dream girl.
Diana Simion We should make a petition to stop letting full grown adults review and belittle books for kids. First, please note there are spoilers. However, the spoilers aren't really spoilers since it doesn't affect your enjoyment or lack of enjoyment if you know the big secret. Nevertheless, a helpful few have pointed out that I have spoilers and I didn't mark them.
So are you happy now? Ok, now to another criticism. All right I'll bite. Yes, Alaska is flawed. That is obvious. Did Mr. Green show how Alaska was flawed and resolve either her flaws or how others deal with her flaws if she chose not to change her ways? Still not buying my argument?
Let's say for the sake of argument, Alaska was a puppy abuser. She goes around kicking puppies. Is her puppy kicking dealt with? Do any of the characters say "listen Alaska Darling, you kick one more puppy and I'm kicking your ass"?
Ok, maybe that is a bit extreme, how about does Mr. Green have his characters abandon Alaska because she refuses to give up her puppy kicking ways? I know, you are saying, "listen, you stupid idiot, Alaska didn't abuse puppies, she only abused other's people's kindness, took advantage of people, emotionally manipulated people and was an all around piss poor person that used her own poor past to lash out".
Oh, ok, I see what you mean, nope, not a puppy kicker Poor Alaska. She screwed up in her past. She blames herself for something that happened when she was a child.
It caused her to be moody, withdrawn, angry, and unpredictable. The next minute, she was the bitch. Poor, poor Alaska. Give me a break! Alaska acted the way she did because she could. She used her past as an excuse for her destructive behavior. Many people had really shitty childhoods. Many people were physically and mentally abused as children. Many people were left to survive on their own as children…hungry, dirty and alone.
Far from it. I have a ton of compassion. But being a victim does not excuse your behavior. Being a victim does not justify your behavior. You still have to treat people with kindness, compassion, love, and honesty regardless of what struggles you survived.
Get help, and then move on. If someone is treating you wrong, call them on it. That is BS. If a person is friendly, kind, caring one minute, but then angry, withdrawn the next, THEY have a problem. If a person is drinking too much, partying to hard, ignoring authority, breaking the rules, THEY have a problem. Alaska sucked as a friend and she was a lousy human being, and she took up too much of my time by reading the book. View all 83 comments. View all 22 comments.
This book is incredibly popular, and it's been waiting patiently in my bookshelf for at least two years now. Looking for Alaska was something in between. Characters: Miles, the main character, is as interesting and charming as toast. So are his parents, but their lack of character depth is even worse. She is every toast-boy's fantasy, curvy, but also smart, a bookworm and feminist. Plot: Hmm. What's the plot? Boarding school, pranks, bullies, girls with boobs, alcohol and cigarettes.
Way too many cigarettes - which really annoys me. Yeah, teens smoke out of stupidity but why write about it, and, in a way, promote it. Not cool. Listen guys, smoking: not cool. Thoughts: I don't get the point. I didn't feel emotionally connected to any of the characters and this lack of feelings took away the sympathy and understanding for them. In a way, it seemed pointless. Not because it's not sad, but more because the whole novel left no impression on me. The dialogues are okay and the pranks are fun, but I don't feel like this must have been written.
Find more of my books on Instagram View all 46 comments. I have really got nothing to say about this book. Throughout the book he objectifies Alaska and cheats on Lara , he belittles Takumi and is just a whining piss baby. View all 27 comments. This was the first book I ever read by John Green. It was given to me in when I had no idea who John Green was. I wish this book had been around when I was a teen.
I really enjoyed the story, but I think I would have liked it even more if I wasn't already past that point in my life. Even still, I loved this book. Miles is in search for the great perhaps, and has a fascination with famous last words.
He meets Alaska Young who is basically the girl of his dreams. Their journey together at boar This was the first book I ever read by John Green. Their journey together at boarding school begins and John takes us on an exciting ride in which you constantly feel there is impending doom lurking ahead. I'm going to keep this review short, because so much has been said on this book.
The writing is as great as I always expect now from JG, and the story unfolds with a great pace that makes you never want to put the book down. You will probably feel some excitement, sadness, and maybe even a little anger reading this book, but I think this book will be memorable.
This is an outstanding coming-of-age novel that doesn't resort to a "happily ever after" ending, but the characters each seek closure on their own terms. The characters are well drawn, witty, and full of individual quirks. This book also includes some fun pranks, some great humor, and some shocking turns of events. I thought that was a really neat tool that helped build suspense. Looking For Alaska is a book I still love and recommend years later, and occasionally still think about.
It remains my favorite JG book, and I would like to personally thank the person who gave me this book for introducing me to this wonderful writer. Recommend to everyone, really! View all 38 comments. Aug 27, NReads rated it really liked it. My favorite from John Green. This reminds me of high school. View all 3 comments. Mar 04, Sarah rated it did not like it Shelves: a-failed-romance , how-very-original , read-something-else , because-villainesses , beware-of-mary-sue , whine-and-cheese , because-rich-people , bookful-of-idiots , everyone-is-a-jerk , narcissistic-millennials.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I got 23 pages into this stink-bomb of a novel and had to put it down. This is exceedingly rare for me, but it's just that bad.
Our hero, Miles Halter, is a weird, spoiled kid who likes reading the ends of biographies just to get people's last words. He doesn't always even read the whole book, just the ending.
Miles thinks this habit makes him deep. Miles is wrong. We know Miles is shallow from page 3. He's leaving his public school for a fancy boarding school, and only two friends, Marie and Will I got 23 pages into this stink-bomb of a novel and had to put it down. He's leaving his public school for a fancy boarding school, and only two friends, Marie and Will, show up to bid him adieu. Miles does not appreciate this gesture because Marie and Will are dorks, theater geeks, and they like Jesus Christ Superstar , which Miles has somehow never heard of but already knows he doesn't like.
Also, Will is fat. The horror. Luckily for Miles, he is soon to escape this hellish existence of being forced to socialize with overweight people who don't recoil like demons at the name of Jesus. At his fancy-pants school, he meets Chip "The Colonel" his jerk of a roommate, but Chip's alright because he looks like "a scale model of Adonis" and he smokes.
Then there's Takumi, who's Asian and talks with his mouth full. So far, that is all we know about Takumi, and I have a horrible feeling that that is all we will ever know about Takumi. And then there's Alaska Young- "the hottest girl in the world" who introduces herself to Miles by gleefully recounting how she got groped by a random, randy boy over the summer.
Alaska is like Miles in that she loves to read a word which here means "parse, but pretend to have read the whole thing" big nonfiction books. Usually girls who like this kind of reading don't boast about their sexual exploits, because they are mature enough not to have any. They also don't drink, smoke, or partake of drugs. But to paraphrase Gandalf at the edge of Mirkwood, this is the John Green-verse, a world that only appears similar to ours, and we're in for all kinds of fun wherever we go.
Chip gives Miles the nickname "Pudge" because Miles is skinny. Green clearly expects us all to be rolling in the aisles over this one. Green's expectations are way off. The night before school begins, Miles gets abducted from his room while Chip is out.
The boys who take him make him a duct tape mummy and throw him in a pond, an ordeal which he miraculously survives. These three guys tried to murder him, but they were thin and attractive and didn't say anything about Jesus, so we're cool.
I neither know nor care what happens after this point. Then Alaska goes drunk-driving and dies, prompting an existential crisis on the part of her friends, who wonder if the car crash was a purposeful suicide. They market this book to kids as young as twelve.
John Green is not a particularly good writer, despite what you might have heard. His prose isn't bad, but it's hardly the ambrosial poetry it's been marketed as. The supposedly deep thoughts of the kids are clearly tacked on - it's not natural for Alaska to go from "OMG he honked my boob" her words, not mine to "General Bolivar wondered 'How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?
Nobody on Earth thinks, acts, or talks like this. Green clearly fancies himself a great sage of adolescence, and his characters worthy to keep the company of the best YA protagonists. What he doesn't realize is that the great characters are great because they're not sold to the reader as perfect; rather, they are shown to be real kids with flaws and virtues.
A few examples: -Huck Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a gritty protagonist, but truly gritty, not some pampered rich kid affecting a hard life to evade moral responsibility. But unlike them, she learns the value of temperance, sacrifice, and humility. But unlike Green's nihilistic dramatis personae, Anne believes fervently in Goodness - not just in God, while that's big, but in the inherent potential of every human being.
She also recognizes her mistakes and learns from them. He collects bugs, and he could probably have a good conversation with Miles and Alaska about famous last words and grain elevators. Eustace looks down on his cousins the Pevensies, whom he perceives as stupid, and he keeps a journal, wherein he is the only smart or sane person in a sea of idiots who enjoy the outdoors and talk about Aslan Christ Superstar. Eustace basically is a Green hero at the start of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , but Lewis sees him as he is - utterly insufferable.
What a pity no one could turn Miles Halter into a dragon; it might have been a character-building experience. She never even really recognizes how different she is from the children around her. She's nine when the story ends, but she's far more mature than Miles or any of his friends. She doesn't degrade the people around her. She just wants to save her family. The last two examples are from a movie and a TV show, but they're still light-years ahead of anybody in a Green book.
She quickly learns that she's not nearly as grown-up as she thought she was, and that by living mentally in a fantasy world, she almost lost her baby brother and got embroiled in a relationship with a rather unstable man that neither she nor he was ready for. Sarah becomes mature when she admits her immaturity. Green's people don't think they have anything to learn.
Some of them are drug-addled partiers, others are readers and perceivers. The writers of the show understood that a wild girl like Kim Kelly, who boasts of her Maenadish adventures just like Alaska, would not enjoy reading, while a bright kid like Lindsay Weir would try pot and skipping school, but feel the whole time like she was betraying herself. Green just amalgamates incompatible personality traits without a shred of realism.
That's not even getting into the zig-zagging language of the book. Green drops heavy swear words frequently, but thinks the reader needs every bit of real information spelled out for them. At the end of chapter 1, Miles explains to his parents who Francois Rabelais was, despite the fact that his dad owns the book about Rabelais that Miles read.
This unnatural dialogue reveals how dumb Green thinks his readers are. It would have been better for Miles-as-narrator to step away from the scene and explain Rabelais briefly to the reader. Believe it or not, kids, there was a time when novelists knew you were smart enough to use an encyclopedia! And what of the gratuitous crudity and innuendo in this book? Alaska is utterly objectified. The first time we meet her, she's bragging about getting felt up.
To a pair of boys, no less, one of whom she doesn't even know. When she's having a supposedly deep conversation by the pond with Miles, he's more focused on her curves, which he describes over and over again in detail, than in anything she's saying. It's the Male Gaze Run Amok. I understand that men are easily distracted by the bodies of women, especially women as beautiful as we're told Alaska is.
But Miles is so filled with lust for her that it's uncomfortable to read about. If I have to read about men looking at women and being horny, I'll stick with Ovid. He can get disgusting, but he's a far superior writer to Green in any translation, and at least in Ovid many of the women do not seek to be objectified.
Also, Metamorphoses boasts such niceties as symbolism, flashes of genuine humor, and explosions. All in all, this is a terrible book which somehow won awards and gained its author a huge, worshipful following.
He has since rewritten it many times, changing the characters' names and tweaking the subject matter slightly. All his books pretend to be profound when they're really just paeans to narcissism, nihilism, and bad decisions. His fans gobble this stuff up because it makes them feel special and unique without challenging them to change their lives or examine their characters. Worse, Green's genre can be a slippery slope to other "profound" YA novels such as the potentially harmful Thirteen Reasons Why , which in light of its alarmingly popular Netflix adaptation will soon be getting a review from me.
In short, don't give this man your money, time or brain cells. View all 51 comments. Nov 04, Kat Lost in Neverland rated it really liked it Shelves: beautiful-writing. First time hearing about this book; Friend online gushes on how amazing and fantabulous this book is.
Me: Okay, I'll check it out. Plus it's cool since I was born in Alaska. The book is about Alaska right? The End. True Story. View all 10 comments. Dec 06, Sofia rated it did not like it Recommends it for: edgy people.
Shelves: le-sigh , lol-what-female-characters , failed-romance , idek-anymore-guys , problematic , that-one-character-i-hate , school-drama , realistic-fiction , dnf , mary-sue. The bar was so low. I loathe this book. Everything about it makes me want to rip out its pages, burn them, and then throw their ashes into the ocean. Actually, that would be cruel to the fish.
Poor fish don't deserve it. Anyway, I need to break this up because there is no way I'm going to be remotely coherent without it. I've heard a lot of negative and positive things about John Green's writing, but it was so much worse than I ever The bar was so low.
I've heard a lot of negative and positive things about John Green's writing, but it was so much worse than I ever imagined. He presumes to know the brain of a teenager, which apparently is some profound, earnest entity that is constantly reflecting on philosophy and dissecting the crevices of the human mind.
And why make everything so intense?? Nobody cares. How normal people write: We picked up the table and moved it to the dining room. How John Green writes: We gently lifted the smooth, ornately carved oak table, surface worn by the hands of countless of our ancestors, and slowly proceeded to the dining room, where we lowered it onto the soft rug that covered most of the earthy cherry wood floor.
Can you just He has an obsession with the last words of people. He memorizes them for no real reason. And that's what he's trying to find in life. His own Great Perhaps. First of all, teenagers don't care.
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