Looking for Alaska - John Green

Hello Lovelies! 

Apologies for being away. Of course right after my last post I got sick. So Music Monday will be postponed this week until at least tomorrow if not Thursday. With that, onto the review!


Goodreads summary...

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

I have mentioned John Green before especially if you follow me on Twitter. I love the videos he does with his brother Hank and I wanted to read the books his followers rave about. I decided to go in the order that he has published them so Looking for Alaska was my first read.   

When I first started this book, I noticed his language immediately. Some authors write the way most people talk, Green does not. He uses his English degree to his great advantage. I love reading books like this because they make you think about what you are reading and are not just giving you the basics of what happens.  

Pudge and his misadventures in boarding school pull you in automatically. I love boarding school settings to begin with but Green gives this school and its students an edge that makes the reader stop and take notice. Once Pudge meets Alaska, you know that he is going to be forever changed just by the way Green describes her.

Even though the book is called Looking for Alaska, the book has very little to do with Alaska directly. Pudge's journey while with Alaska however is the focal point of the book. She makes Pudge different without even trying and he does not realize it until later. 

Green has a fascination with different types of religion and it shows in this book. He is very detailed about them and they play a big part of Pudge's journey through the semester even though Pudge himself is not religious. This is another reason I love this book. Green as the author teaches you something throughout this story. 

I love this book. I have to be in the mood to read an author like Green, which is why it took me longer to read this book than most books I read, but it is worth the read. I am looking forward to reading more books by Green because of the resounding success of his first.

If you noticed there is no rating at the beginning of this review, that is because I honestly do not know how to rate this book. When I finish a book, I try to write something about the book on a post-it and put it in the book so I can remember exactly how I felt about when I do a review. The only thing I could find to write minutes after finishing this book was one word - mesmerizing. I have not read it again and do not have the will to do so anytime soon but I will more than likely come back to it later in life and see the exact beauty in it that I saw the first time I read it. So I'm going to give it a 9.5 out of 10 because of this fact. 

As always, leave me a comment telling me how you liked this book and what other books you would like me to review. 

Thanks for reading!

C.