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bookgazing) wrote2009-02-02 02:58 pm
bookgazing) wrote2009-02-02 02:58 pm
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Looking for Alaska - John Green
Whenever I read a great YA book I feel an urge to gush instead of reviewing critically. So, this review may be more of a big, grappling hug of love than a cool look at the merits of ‘Looking for Alaska’ by John Green.
Miles Halter leaves his dead end life for a new start at boarding school. He’s searching for ‘The Great Perhaps’, the chances that might be out there to be explored. On arrival boarding school doesn’t seem like the change he’s looking for. His roommate is strange and he almost drowns during a malicious hazing prank. However he does meet the most beautiful girl in the world, and the chance to hang out with Alaska Young, the green eyed, manic prankster seems to be worth anything to Miles.
I loved this book. I loved the normality of the narrator’s voice. Although he’d been friendless at his last school he’s never full on desperate to fit in with the group of friends he meets. For a social anomaly he bonds so fully with the Colonel and Alaska that you quickly forget he was ever the outsider to the group. He’s never self pitying about his previous lack of a social life, instead he just plugs away at getting to know the group of people who take him in. Miles is calm and interested but not eager, or an easy subject for peer pressure. Although he takes up smoking and drinking because they’re things the others do Mile’s tries them as a way of exploring what’s available, not just because he wants to fit in.
I felt so energised after reading ‘Looking for Alaska’, despite the depressing events later on. I think that’s because Alaska and her friends are always doing something; whether they’re drinking, smoking or pulling pranks they’re always active, fully involved in life. Although readers may suspect that Alaska’s extreme emotional highs and lows are worrying signs she is so energetic that it’s impossible not to get swept along in her current mood. She cries and collapses in one section but in the next is full of wicked schemes that it is easy for her reader, as it is for her friends, to forget the warning signs in order to be fully present in her new, mischievous mood.
I’m also a big fan of the way the book shows how the big philosophical questions, dealt with by organised religion, apply to everyday life. References to the religious lessons the characters are taught in lessons are integrated quietly into their discussions outside class, so that the continuance of these ideas seems natural. I loved the smartness of the book, not just that the main group are motivated but imperfect students, but that the characters care really deeply about examining how to live life.
So it’s love between me and my second choice for the YA Challenge but I’m willing to share, if you want to take ‘Looking for Alaska’ away for some ‘alone time
Random Areas of Inspiration
‘ “Jesus I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re gonna do. I’m just going to do it. Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.”
“Huh?” I asked
“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”
I guess that made sense. I had imagined that life at the Creek would be more exciting than it was – in reality, there’d been more homework than adventure – but if I hadn’t imagined it, I would never have gotten to the Creek at all.’
PS You’ll be able to read a review of the first book I read for this challenge soon.
Other Reviews
Tanabata
Green Bean Teen Queen
Yannabe
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Sophisticated Dorkiness
The Book Smugglers
Miles Halter leaves his dead end life for a new start at boarding school. He’s searching for ‘The Great Perhaps’, the chances that might be out there to be explored. On arrival boarding school doesn’t seem like the change he’s looking for. His roommate is strange and he almost drowns during a malicious hazing prank. However he does meet the most beautiful girl in the world, and the chance to hang out with Alaska Young, the green eyed, manic prankster seems to be worth anything to Miles.
I loved this book. I loved the normality of the narrator’s voice. Although he’d been friendless at his last school he’s never full on desperate to fit in with the group of friends he meets. For a social anomaly he bonds so fully with the Colonel and Alaska that you quickly forget he was ever the outsider to the group. He’s never self pitying about his previous lack of a social life, instead he just plugs away at getting to know the group of people who take him in. Miles is calm and interested but not eager, or an easy subject for peer pressure. Although he takes up smoking and drinking because they’re things the others do Mile’s tries them as a way of exploring what’s available, not just because he wants to fit in.
I felt so energised after reading ‘Looking for Alaska’, despite the depressing events later on. I think that’s because Alaska and her friends are always doing something; whether they’re drinking, smoking or pulling pranks they’re always active, fully involved in life. Although readers may suspect that Alaska’s extreme emotional highs and lows are worrying signs she is so energetic that it’s impossible not to get swept along in her current mood. She cries and collapses in one section but in the next is full of wicked schemes that it is easy for her reader, as it is for her friends, to forget the warning signs in order to be fully present in her new, mischievous mood.
I’m also a big fan of the way the book shows how the big philosophical questions, dealt with by organised religion, apply to everyday life. References to the religious lessons the characters are taught in lessons are integrated quietly into their discussions outside class, so that the continuance of these ideas seems natural. I loved the smartness of the book, not just that the main group are motivated but imperfect students, but that the characters care really deeply about examining how to live life.
So it’s love between me and my second choice for the YA Challenge but I’m willing to share, if you want to take ‘Looking for Alaska’ away for some ‘alone time
Random Areas of Inspiration
‘ “Jesus I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re gonna do. I’m just going to do it. Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.”
“Huh?” I asked
“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”
I guess that made sense. I had imagined that life at the Creek would be more exciting than it was – in reality, there’d been more homework than adventure – but if I hadn’t imagined it, I would never have gotten to the Creek at all.’
PS You’ll be able to read a review of the first book I read for this challenge soon.
Other Reviews
Tanabata
Green Bean Teen Queen
Yannabe
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Sophisticated Dorkiness
The Book Smugglers