Looking for Alaska - John Green

Looking For Alaska

John Green

2005

At some point you will probably think that I'm just a huge John Green fangirl (true) but the writing in this novel is just amazing. I borrowed this book from my public library at some point in time before I even knew about the vlogbrothers. This book is emotional and wonderful and has a very awkward yet somehow amazing blow job scene (it isn't graphic, it's humorous). I think I read this book twice in the time that I had it from the library and bought my own copy shortly after returning it. It's one of my favourite books even though it makes me cry sometimes. 

Looking For Alaska is about Miles, or Pudge as his new friends nickname him, and his new experiences at boarding school. He is obsessed with famous people's last words to the point where he reads biographies just to learn them. When he is asked about why he wants to move away from home he gives the last words of François Rabelais's last words - "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." He moves to boarding school and meets Alaska and falls in love. And that's where the plot summary ends because I don't want to spoil this magnificent novel for anyone.

It's the kind of novel where once I reach a certain point in the novel I can't just put it down and I have to finish it. If you've read it, you may know which part I'm thinking about (and if you don't, you can email me to find out).

And I can say it is magnificent because it's won the Michael L. Printz award (as you can tell by the beautiful shiny sticker). You can also tell it's a good book by the fact that it has been banned in some schools. Almost all good books get banned at some point (see: Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye, etc). John Green has also defended the book on many occasions in real life and on youtube and probably in writing. It's also the book that led to the metaphor that is famous on tumblr "If people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane." Also, parts of the books are kind of based on true-to-life events. 

I give this book 4.8 out of 5. I should probably come up a better system for rating books. But this book deserves every little bit of that 4.8. Heck, it probably deserves more. This is one of those books that everyone who wants a good, emotionally traumatizing read (but the good kind of emotionally traumatizing). 

Have you read this book? What do you think? 

If you have read it, what was your reading experience like? Were you as emotional as I was?