Green, John. Looking for Alaska. New York: Dutton Juvenile, 2005.
Genre: Contemporary
Intended Audience: 14 and up
Personal Reaction to the Book:
This is the third book by John Green which I have read. It is also his first novel. It shares some characteristics with Paper Towns (2008) in that it is about a mysterious, quirky, emotionally unstable girl who goes missing. In Paper Towns she runs away and in Looking for Alaska (Spoiler Alert!) she dies.
In Looking for Alaska we meet Miles “Pudge” Halter who goes away to a boarding school in his junior year of high school. He befriends his roommate, the “Colonel,” and other people, among them the enigmatic and complicated Alaska Young. Pudge quickly falls in love with Alaska though she is tormented by past crises. In January, Alaska dies in a car accident which is very clearly a suicide. Grieving, Pudge and his friends seek to find out the truth about Alaska in her final moments and to discover her intentions.
Alaska really annoyed me because she definitely played into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stock character, something for which John Green has been criticized. I don’t mean to sound callous, but I actually preferred the “After” section of the book, which focused on life “after” she died. I was more interested in the characters exploring how they thought of Alaska versus how they really were. This is a theme that Green refines in Paper Towns. Overall, I liked this novel, but it didn’t leave a huge impression on me. Obviously, though, as a Printz winner and a bestseller with a cult following, Looking for Alaska is a must-have for any library’s young adult collection.
Author Facts
- John Green’s superstardom was present even before the publication of The Fault in Our Stars, but perhaps that’s the moment where he hit rockstar status; the book shot to #1 on Amazon six months before its release date and before Green had even finished writing it.
- In 2014, Time magazine named Green one of the world’s 100 most influential people.
- Green considers himself to be better known for his YouTube videos.
Related Websites
- John Green’s website
- “Vlogbrothers” — Green’s video webseries on YouTube with his brother, Hank
