John Green. He's a man everyone knows. He's known for his YouTube videos and his best-selling Y.A. novels. While his most famous written-work is The Fault in Our Stars, his other novels are equally as beautiful, if not even more so than his best-selling novel. Looking for Alaska is about love, life, mystery, and famous last words.
We begin our journey with Miles Halter. He has decided to spend his junior year of high school where his father went when he was younger, Culver Creek boarding school. When he gets to the school, he is introduced to his roommate, Chip. But everyone calls Chip, "The Colonel," and Chip aptly nicknames Miles, "Pudge" because he is so tall and skinny. Chip then introduces Miles to the woman who will change his life forever, Alaska Young. Alaska is unlike any other girl Miles has met in his life. She's beautiful, quizzical, smart, philosophical, and altogether extraordinary. It's not long before Alaska and Miles are pretty close friends.
Miles tells Alaska about his obsession with famous last words, and reveals what he told his parents when he decided to go to Culver Creek, “Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were 'I go to seek a Great Perhaps.' That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.” After Alaska thinks about this, she tells Miles about her favorite set of famous last words: "Simon Bolivar—was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. 'Damn it,' he sighed. 'How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!'" Throughout the novel, Miles focuses on seeking "a Great Perhaps," and figuring out not only how to escape the "labyrinth," but figuring out exactly what the "labyrinth" is.
The story is split into two parts: the Before and the After. However, the reader doesn't know why there is a before and after until the before is over and the after has begun. And therein lies the mystery, folks. Miles, the Colonel, Alaska, and their friends Lara and Takumi have so many questions that need answered throughout the novel that it becomes a race against the clock type of deal. This is one of the reasons this story is so exciting.
John Green does a wonderful job of making his audience think. And I don't just mean that in the obvious sense. Green asks his readers the hard questions. The questions that kept early astronomers and philosophers up at night. He wants his readers to gain a sense of being from his novels, to feel as if they have some sort of control while realizing they have no control at all. He wants them to know that life, love, and everything in between is messy and doesn't have one definite answer, or any answer at all! Looking for Alaska is a novel of extensive caliber, and for Green to have written such a thing puts him in that category as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and know that it had a part in shaping who I am as a person. For these reasons, I give this novel 5/5 stars.
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