IRP

[Kaleb]

In looking for Alaska you meet a skinny kid looking to somewhat “start over” in his new school Culver Creek. This skinny kid is named Miles. He is the main character who switches schools for friends and other social reasons, but mainly he wants to look for his “...great perhaps”(pg 9). At his new school, he gets to a good start on searching for his great perhaps, or whatever good thing he has coming for him. Miles meets two other main characters named Chip and Alaska. Chip, a not very popular guy, takes Miles under his wing and helps him have fun and live while at boarding school. Alaska a beautiful and mysterious girl tags along with Miles and slower later in the book Miles catches feelings for Alaska. Alaska although already having a boyfriend decides to stay with Miles, known as Pudge now, for Thanksgiving while everyone is out of campus.(SPOILERS→) There Pudge and Alaska get along just fine drinking, smoking, and pranking other classmates. Alaska who has been trying to get out of “...the labyrinth of suffering”(pg 82) talks more about the dark hole and what happened to her parents. Later when Alaska and Miles took a huge step in the relationship, her boyfriend calls for their eight-month anniversary. Freaking out she suddenly leaves the campus in her car drunk and distraught. The next day the students meet in the gym when they get the news that Alaska has died in a terrible car accident. Many students are hit with a devastating blow of sadness especially Miles and Chip. Caught up in their grief and depression they wonder if the death was by accident or not. Talking to officers, her ex-boyfriend, and looking for who Alaska was as a person. Later life moves on and Miles and Chip come to a conclusion of Alaska's death and live happily at their new school.

This is my first time reading a book like this and it may not be my last. This mystery/love story was intriguing to me and I found it very easy to fall into interest reading it. I believe the story as a whole was quite amazing and would love to read some other pieces written by John Green. To me what stood out was how real the book sounded. The people in it and the way Miles thought was that of any student. I feel as if everyone deep inside wants to find their “Great Perhaps”. John Green didn’t make this book fake or leave anything out that some other authors may have left out. I found that interesting in his style of writing. The only part or parts of the book that I had a disliking to were the days to day things that Miles did that were included in the book. What I mean by this is that some parts bored me and I thought you could have survived leaving them out and jumping to the better parts of the story. Coming to a conclusion I do believe that I would recommend to some people looking for a good book to read. Especially encouraging them just to give it a chance if they think it’s too girly coming from a writer like John Green and some of his other works like The Fault in our Stars, or Paper Towns. So even if someone thinks it will be bad I do hope they give it a shot since it is a very good book.

[Robin]

I agree that everyone wants to find their "Great Perhaps." As a teenager, we are constantly influenced by others around us. It makes it difficult for us to find ourselves and even harder to get out of the labyrinth of suffering. I also totally agree that parts got boring. I felt like after Alaska died, Miles went into a state of depression and nothing exciting happened after that. The letter at the end from Takumi is interesting but that is the only part I liked in the second part. Something I learned from this novel was that everyone is not given a perfect life but you must take what you have and make something out of it.