Who: John Green
What: Looking for Alaska
When: December 28th, 2006
Why: John Green is EPIC *nerdfighter!*
How: Bought
Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter is done with his safe life
at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with
famous last words has only made him crave "the Great Perhaps" even more
(Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy 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. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world,
launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then . . . After.
Nothing is ever the same.
Looking for Alaska was everything I expected it to be, funny, sad, heart-breaking and utterly brilliant. If it was possible, I love John Green even more than I did before reading his books. And after reading both this and Paper towns, I understand a lot of the book-based jokes in his vlogs (THE FOXHAT!)
Looking for Alaska is about a awesomely awkward boy named Miles (nickname: Pudge, even though he's stick skinny) Halter. He goes seeking more adventure in his life so he moves from "boring" Orlando (yes, I had a mini spaz cuz I live a few hours from there) to Curver Creek Boarding School in hot-as-hell Alabama. There he meets some...interesting characters.
You have the Coronal, who was just awesomely bossy. He's a super genius and totally screwed up. That's something I really liked in the book, everyone was a little screwed up inside. Aren't we all? Takumi has just....so. freaking. funny. (Back to the FOXHAT) And then there was Alaska Young. Alaska was self-destructive, deep, playful, flirty, and a lot of times a total b****, but something about her stuck. She was the type of person you remember, someone who was a crazy genius but who's crazy took over a little. I consider her female Edgar Allen Poe, honestly. She was brilliant and a tad insane, loved to drink and smoke her life away (quote from book: "You smoke to enjoy it, I smoke to die." ) , but was incredibly insightful.
As for the "adult content" in that book, it's really not bad at all. Sure, there's underage smoking/drinking but really? That's everywhere. The thing that everyone seems to have a problem with is the blow job. Huh, maybe I shouldn't have said that so bluntly... Ok but seriously? No detail was described what-so-ever. Stop being drama queens. Also, the scene that follows it just projects the fact that physical attraction (according to everything in the book, Lara is insanely pretty) cannot be a replacement for emotional attraction (like he has for Alaska) and vice versa.
I love how the book is separated between before and after, because that's really what it was. Miles was one person in the beginning of the story. He was gawky, nervous, afraid, and a little bit of a badass and then after, he is no longer the same Miles. He is permanently Pudge, permanently integrated inside Culver Creek and his friends and just he's a different person. I love character development!
My rating? AwesomeSAUCE.
Happy Reading!
-Harmony B.
p.s Did anyone get Alaska's knock-knock joke? Cuz I DIDN'T. Help?
