Looking for Alaska follows Miles Halter as he makes a big
decision in his life. He decides he wants to go to his dad’s old school, Culver
Creek. It’s a boarding school miles away from home so he’s hoping that a new
start will be positive for him. Back home he doesn’t have any friends and has
no ambitions; he’s fed up with his life. At Culver Creek he has a roommate,
Chip or The Colonel, who quickly becomes his friend. The Colonel has a group of
friends that welcome Miles into their fold. One of those people is Alaska Young
and Miles is immediately attracted to her. The gang mess about drinking and
smoking until one day something big happens and their world changes.
Miles is eager to make friends and so pretty much does
whatever The Colonel wants him to do so instead of muddling along and keeping
his nose clean, he takes up smoking and drinking. He gets himself the name
Pudge as well due to how skinny he is. His infatuation with Alaska means he
lets himself get led astray when the group pull their pranks. I couldn’t really
connect with Miles or Alaska but I did quite like The Colonel. So being from
Miles’ point of view wasn’t the easiest read. It was a bit like watching Skins
on TV. You have an idea that this sort of thing goes on with frustrated teens
but I have no experience of it myself.
I couldn’t quite make out how the school worked. They seemed
to be able to leave whenever they wanted and had cars to get around. The school
is set in what appear to be large grounds as they have a wood and a lake. But
there is a McDonalds and convenience store within walking distance. Like with
any school, the teens know all the hiding places and which teachers can be
trusted and which need to be avoided. Having said that, it seems like a close
knit place and the teachers know all the students and are happy to help them.
The book is very much about the characters and apart from
the incident that occurs half way through the book there is no action. Miles
changes after moving out of home. He becomes more confident and wants to do
something with his life. He’s happy and wants life to stay exactly as it is for
a while so he can enjoy himself. Obviously, this isn’t the case and his
relationships with his friends are put under strain after the event occurs. He
realises that he doesn’t actually know these people all that well. Other than
The Colonel and Alaska he doesn’t have a lot in common with the rest of the
group. This threatens t put him back to square one and he wants the group
together.
I had high expectations for this book as I had heard it was
really good. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I didn’t know anything about the
content of the story. I’d seen John Green on YouTube so had a preconception of
the sort of book he would write. This wasn’t what I expected so it took a while
to get into the story. The issues this book deals with appear to be common for
him. I enjoyed the way he had the characters deal with it. The second half of
the book was more exciting to read than the first. Although, without the first
half, you wouldn’t know quite how devastating the event is. I wouldn’t
recommend this to younger teens as some of the content is mature. I didn’t like
the book as much as I was hoping to but I certainly didn’t not like it.
Overall rating 3 out of 5.
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