Looking for Alaska is American author John Green‘s debut novel, published in March 2005 by Dutton Juvenile. Based on his time at Indian Springs School, Green wrote the novel as a result of his desire to create meaningful young adult fiction. The characters and events of the plot are grounded in Green's life, while the story itself is fictional.Looking for Alaska follows the novel's main character and narrator Miles Halter, or "Pudge," to boarding school where he goes to seek a "Great Perhaps," the famous last words of François Rabelais. Throughout the 'Before' section of the novel, Miles and his friends Chip "The Colonel" Martin, Alaska Young, and Takumi Hikohito grow very close and the section culminates in Alaska's death. In the second half of the novel, Miles and his friends work to discover the missing details of the night Alaska died. While struggling to reconcile Alaska's death, Miles grapples …
Looking for Alaska is American author John Green‘s debut novel, published in March 2005 by Dutton Juvenile. Based on his time at Indian Springs School, Green wrote the novel as a result of his desire to create meaningful young adult fiction. The characters and events of the plot are grounded in Green's life, while the story itself is fictional.Looking for Alaska follows the novel's main character and narrator Miles Halter, or "Pudge," to boarding school where he goes to seek a "Great Perhaps," the famous last words of François Rabelais. Throughout the 'Before' section of the novel, Miles and his friends Chip "The Colonel" Martin, Alaska Young, and Takumi Hikohito grow very close and the section culminates in Alaska's death. In the second half of the novel, Miles and his friends work to discover the missing details of the night Alaska died. While struggling to reconcile Alaska's death, Miles grapples with the last words of Simón Bolívar and the meaning of life, leaving the conclusion to these topics unresolved.
Looking for Alaska is a coming-of-age novel that touches on themes of meaning, grief, hope, and youth-adult relationships. The novel won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, and led the association's list of most-challenged books in 2015 due to profanity and a sexually explicit scene. Ultimately, it became the fourth-most challenged book in the United States between 2010 and 2019. Schools in Kentucky, Tennessee, and several other states have attempted to place bans on the book. In 2005, Paramount Pictures received the rights to produce a film adaptation of Looking for Alaska; however, the film failed to reach production. Looking for Alaska, a television miniseries, premiered as a Hulu Original on October 18, 2019.
I like John Green's writing but I didn't connect with this story enough to even really remember it after all this time. Even though I've remembered the rest of the books I've read from the same time period. I don't think I connected with the characters very much.
I like John Green's writing but I didn't connect with this story enough to even really remember it after all this time. Even though I've remembered the rest of the books I've read from the same time period. I don't think I connected with the characters very much.
Having read John Green's books in a rather haphazard order I've gotten used to his way of ending stories with hope sans joy, but Looking For Alaska was too much of an emotional gut punch. If this was his first book, I'm not even slightly surprised he's had the successful career he's had since. It's just beautiful.
Having read John Green's books in a rather haphazard order I've gotten used to his way of ending stories with hope sans joy, but Looking For Alaska was too much of an emotional gut punch. If this was his first book, I'm not even slightly surprised he's had the successful career he's had since. It's just beautiful.
I grabbed this off my virtual to read pile feeling like the mild annoyance of a John Green story was pretty much what I wanted. I didn't check what the hell this one was about again, briefly confused it with Paper Towns, and was thus completely unprepared for a main character dying tragically!
What I dislike about this is all the guys..... I just hate reading John Green's characters being sexist all the time. Yeah I would agree that this is..... worked through..... in this story. But it's just draining. And I do dislike some fundamental principles of this story, too.
Still this is the John Green book I liked the most so far. (Although to be fair I read that one really really sad one before I found my appreciation for stories like that.) It's sad and painful, still the ~whimsical~ vibe that I think John Green …
I grabbed this off my virtual to read pile feeling like the mild annoyance of a John Green story was pretty much what I wanted. I didn't check what the hell this one was about again, briefly confused it with Paper Towns, and was thus completely unprepared for a main character dying tragically!
What I dislike about this is all the guys..... I just hate reading John Green's characters being sexist all the time. Yeah I would agree that this is..... worked through..... in this story. But it's just draining. And I do dislike some fundamental principles of this story, too.
Still this is the John Green book I liked the most so far. (Although to be fair I read that one really really sad one before I found my appreciation for stories like that.) It's sad and painful, still the ~whimsical~ vibe that I think John Green goes for felt the most believable in this one. For once I wasn't annoyed by pretentious quotes, I think they fit in pretty well. And sure Alaska is pixie-dreamgirled by her friends, but I think this is actually subverted pretty well.
I did occasionally feel like I was too old or too exhausted for such a tragic "sometimes people die and it's not even just that" story, like, I don't have the energy to be devastated with all those characters. But I also stayed up late almost finishing a 1000 pieces puzzle while listening to this so I think I liked it. (Although I did start working on the puzzle to calm down, initially.)
