Looking for Alaska

reading next: oh, God help me, I don't know. I'll probably eenie meenie miney mo it.


Looking for Alaska
written by John Green

So I'm proud of myself for finally reading this book after plenty of people told me I definitely needed to. However, I do not think it lived up to the hype at all. There is nothing particularly 'spectacular' about this book, I still believe the 'spectacular' fully resides in An Abundance of Katherines. This isn't to say I disliked it. I think John Green's style has developed since Alaska and for the better. The book had its moments of intense description that made me, not going to lie, skip some paragraphs for their density. I can see the beginnings of Green's clever writing style in the book, particularly the concussion part, and Alaska choosing her own name, but the rest, it's really just another YA book. There is the beginning of a boy best friendship, and those are always really sweet to read about, but the truly good examples of those, again, are in Green's later books. I did enjoy his commentary on 'fake grievers', God knows I get annoyed by those, and I found the Old Man's class sessions/assignments to be absolutely amazing, desperately wishing I had a class like that. But Alaska's death...eh. I've heard people say you can't get through this book without crying, but I'm doing just fine, and believe me, I'm a crier. You could see her death coming from miles away. Nothing surprising about it, nothing particularly tragic about it. Alaska wasn't as amazing, I feel, as Miles made her up to be. It was sad, sure, but nothing powerful about it. (If you want a good YA book that'll really make you think about death differently, try Thirteen Reasons Why. Now that one had me bawling). Still. Alaska had it's moments. Few moments, but awesome ones, and Famous Last Words FTW.

Rating: 3.5/5