Looking for Alaska in Overdue Podcast

Feb 17, 2012 Valerie rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. John Green is amazing. His books are really good and this one started it. This book is the very beginning of John Green and his progression as an author and that can never be replaced. However, it's not even close to being my favorite. Looking for Alaska is a great book, but it's definitely not John's best.

Though I know that it's a realistic take on being a teenager, I personally feel like LfA is a bit far fetched. The constant drinking, smoking, and sex is just too much. Not every teenager act ...more

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Apr 22, 2014 Kaz rated it did not like it

_ I'm the only person it seems who cannot get behind ridiculously self aware teenagers. Also, the whole, she's crazy but it's ok because she's super hot. ...more

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Jul 01, 2020 Natasha Curulli rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books, 2020-highlights

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Looking for Alaska is a fantastic well written young adult novel by John Green. This book is uniquely structured in a way that tells of events before and after the demise of Alaska Young.
We are first introduced to the book’s main protagonist, Myles Halter; an average and awkward teenager who lives his days unexcitedly in Florida. Myles has a morbid fascination with the last words of historical figures. One such phrase from Francois Rabelais leaves Myles wanting to search for the ‘Great Perhaps. Looking for Alaska is a fantastic well written young adult novel by John Green. This book is uniquely structured in a way that tells of events before and after the demise of Alaska Young.
We are first introduced to the book’s main protagonist, Myles Halter; an average and awkward teenager who lives his days unexcitedly in Florida. Myles has a morbid fascination with the last words of historical figures. One such phrase from Francois Rabelais leaves Myles wanting to search for the ‘Great Perhaps.’ With this thought in mind, Myles makes the decision to leave his family and attend boarding school at Culver Creek Academy. This is where he meets people, he can for the first time in his life call his friends; The Colonel, Takumi, Alaska Young and to a more minor extent Lara.
The Colonel who gives Myles the nickname ‘Pudge,’ is his mischievous new room mate that enjoys playing pranks on the richer students at the Creek. When Pudge first lays eyes on the sassy, witty, beautiful and self-destructive, Alaska, he cannot help but be completely enthralled with her. In the 128 days before Alaska’s death Pudge learns valuable lessons in love, friendship, loyalty and pain. After Alaska’s death, the characters all go through a whirlwind of emotions from denial, guilt, sadness and finally acceptance.
Green does such a fantastic job with his characterisation by gradually developing the individual personalities of each character so that by the time Alaska is killed, the reader is fully immersed in the situation and feels each emotion as experienced by Pudge, the Colonel and Takumi. It is really something for an author to make readers feels so much through words. I really recommend reading this book, it was honestly such a great read.
Some of the things I picked up on as I was reading the book include:
• Alaska is a mysterious figure and whilst we get glimpses of her in the way of her behaviour, the reader never gets a full sense of who she is. She is more of an enigma and Green doesn’t really introduce Alaska but rather focuses on the effects she has on the people in her life. After having a think about it, I believe this is a motif for how Pudge places her on a pedestal of sorts. He doesn’t really see her completely and fails to fathom the seriousness of events in her life and the real pain that she suffers daily.
• The aggressive swan in the lake is a symbol of Alaska herself. Swans are beautiful, however, can be unpredictable and at times aggressive. This is similar with Alaska, who is beautiful, but her pain leads her to be unpredictable and moody.
• When Dr Hyde tells Pudge to ‘be present’ he is really trying to tell Pudge to listen. Something that he fails to do with Alaska.
• Something I looked up and found rather interesting was the secondary meaning in Myles’ name. Myles Halter – Halt Her.
One of the complex questions being asked in Looking for Alaska is ‘How will you – you personally - get out of this labyrinth of suffering?’ It is a question that is introduced by Alaska and reiterated throughout the book as a way for the other protagonists to make sense of Alaska’s actions both before and after.
How would I answer this question? It is one I keep revisiting, particularly as I have my own experience with mental illness. I believe that we all enter a labyrinth when we are born. As we grow up, we travel further and further into our own personal labyrinth. Suffering is such a subjective thing and it comes down to the choices we make and the way we chose to deal with our pain. We can let the suffering take us whole and fall further into the abyss or we can be strong and fight back. Sometimes we make the right choices and proceed further and other times our choices can lead to dead ends. It is not until our final breath that we are able to exit the labyrinth and the sufferings of life.
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Jul 30, 2012 Tiffani rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, read-in-2013, lit-explorer-2013, fiction-general

Looking for Alaska has been on my radar for a long time. It seemed to pop up everywhere I looked, with everyone having nothing but good things to say about it. I finally got around to reading Alaska and now will add my voice to those singing its praises.

So much was great about this book. It is hard to write about this book without giving away major plot points so I instead I'm going to focus on two things, or specifically two quotes that are used in the book.

"I go to seek a Great Perhaps." ~ Fr Looking for Alaska has been on my radar for a long time. It seemed to pop up everywhere I looked, with everyone having nothing but good things to say about it. I finally got around to reading Alaska and now will add my voice to those singing its praises.

So much was great about this book. It is hard to write about this book without giving away major plot points so I instead I'm going to focus on two things, or specifically two quotes that are used in the book.

"I go to seek a Great Perhaps." ~ François Rabelias

The story begins with Miles or "Pudge" headed from his Florida home to boarding school in Alabama in search of the "Great Perhaps." Pudge is fond of memorizing people's last words and he quotes Rabelias to explain to his parents why he wants to go to boarding school. The "Great Perhaps" completely captures that time when you are a teenager, influenced by romance, mystery and adventure stories (whether written or on a screen), and waiting for life to begin, because it seems like nothing ever exciting happens in your town/city/school but you know one day it will and you can't wait. Pudge heads to boarding school seeking for his life to really begin, and it does. He makes real friends for the first time, including the beautiful, mysterious, fun, and moody Alaska. Pudge has no choice but to fall in lust with her. Now if this were a less well written young adult fiction book, Pudge would be the nerd/party kid/ or some other stereotype who gets fixed by his new friends who teach him how to have fun/be more responsible or whatever lesson is to be conveyed. That doesn't happen here. Of course Pudge changes and grows as anyone might upon immersing oneself in new surroundings with new people, but he is fully formed character when the novel begins as are (most of) the other characters.

"How will I ever out of this labyrinth!" ~ Simón Bolívar

Miles' religious studies teacher uses Simón Bolívar's quote as the basis of an essay question, asking students how they personally "ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering." This question reverberates throughout the story. I had never heard this quote before reading this book and yet it evoked and immediately familiar feeling. It so perfectly captures how it feels (at any age) to be depressed and/or hopeless, when something terrible has happened and you're wondering if things will ever get better, if you'll ever not feel the pain you're feeling right at the moment. Looking for Alaska is full of teenage fun and giddiness, but there is also sadness as the characters struggle with dealing with their own suffering. In less competent hands this could have turned into a Hallmark movie but luckily Green manages to write the characters in a way that feels real. There lives are messy but without the over-the-top melodrama. There are questions that never get answered, just like in real life. Tragedy happens, people grieve in their individual ways, and then somehow they manage to move on finding their legs even after the ground has shifted beneath them.

In case it is not clear I very much enjoyed Looking for Alaska and would definitely recommend it. Even for those who do not regularly read young adult fiction this is worth a read. ...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Brittany rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya-challenge-5, pbs-great-american-read

Wow. I am surprised at how much I really liked this book. I really liked all the characters because they gave so much information about them. You felt like you really got to know them. I don't normally get upset when reading books but there were parts that were really upsetting (not going to give anything away about the book). The only character I was not really fond of was Jake. He was so important to Alaska but for some reason he was kind of foreign to me. I thought they played out his adjustm ...more

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Oct 21, 2014 Dana rated it liked it

Actually a 2.5, but I rounded up because I didn't dislike the book. The 3 stars is for the first half of the book and the last chapter, which I did enjoy. The 2 stars is for the second half of the book which I felt like I was just reading to finish the book. ...more

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