7 September 2015

Review #308: Looking for Alaska by John Green



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze.” 


----John Green



John Green, an award-winning bestselling author, has penned his debut YA novel, Looking for Alaska that accounts the story of a teenage boy and how his life drastically changes when he goes to a boarding school.








Synopsis:

Miles has a quirky interest in famous people's last words, especially François Rabelais's final statement, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Determined not to wait for death to begin a similar quest, Miles convinces his parents to let him leave home. Once settled at Culver Creek Preparatory School, he befriends a couple of equally gifted outcasts: his roommate Chip―commonly known as the Colonel—who has a predilection for memorizing long, alphabetical lists for fun; and the beautiful and unpredictable Alaska, whom Miles comes to adore.

The kids grow closer as they make their way through a school year filled with contraband, tests, pranks, breakups, and revelations about family and life. But as the story hurtles toward its shattering climax, chapter headings like "forty-six days before" and "the last day" portend a tragic event―one that will change Miles forever and lead him to new conclusions about the value of his cherished "Great Perhaps."



Miles is not exactly a weirdo in a larger POV, he is just gifted with his weird fascination for memorizing the last words of the famous personalities like authors. When Miles leaves home to seek for a "Great Perhaps" to his new boarding school, he meets equally gifted teenagers from Chip to Alaska to Takumi, together who create memories in Miles' first year in the boarding school.

I read this book after reading Papertowns so it felt more like reading Papertowns only difference is that there are hardly any breadcrumbs to follow the female protagonist of the story unlike Margo's story. The story is not that too deep, yet it progresses at a slow pace with lots of wisdom and thoughts about life and death perceived through the teenagers' minds. The contemplation about life and death and also the main protagonist's thoughts were subdued with the life changing event of his life.

There's not much to grasp from this book or rather there's not much to talk about, it's a just a bunch of teenagers finding their way through life by having adventures, creating histories with their pain, love, heartbreak, revelations etc. The writing style is of classic John Green style which if considering that someone reads this book before Papertowns will definitely love it, but after it, then it might not strike an impressionistic chord in the minds of the readers. The narrative style is good and pretty strong enough with lots of emotions to fall for. The story is divided into two parts one before the life changing event and one after the event, and the event might become predictable to some after reading the first few chapters.

The characters in the book have highlighted the lost charm in this story. Each and every character, though fictitious, might feel like we happen to know them from somewhere before and at times they have an ability to speak like the readers' minds. The characters grow very strikingly one before the event and also after the event, and the author has vividly captured the impact upon the characters' lives due to the event. John Green has been forever acclaimed for capturing the voice of a teenager so evocatively with great vividness, and this time too he has done it.

The emotions are played with and depicted well by the author, whereas the aura of flawed friendships and imperfect beginnings have forever marked as the classic John Green story line setting and in Looking for Alaska too these themes are strikingly portrayed. Overall, this is an interesting book and if you are a die hard John Green fan, you'll forever love the story but for others, I guess they might not fall for Alaska's trap to the mystery of labyrinth that Miles tried to constantly understand or interpret till the very last page.

Verdict: Fun book yet has an emotional side to it. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author Info:
John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.

In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website.
Visit him here


Book Purchase Links:

2 comments:

  1. Great review! I haven't read this one, but I believe that it will be really enjoyable since it's John Green we're talking about :)

    Aeriko @ The Reading Armchair

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome review. I read this book a few years ago and enjoyed it. It is very similar to Paper Towns (which I also enjoyed).

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your feedback!