A review by miles862
Looking for Alaska, by John Green

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Hm. I think I like John Green's writing better in small doses. This is a very...quotable book? You can pull out plenty of lovely prose and turns of phrase. The problem is pretty much everything in between. The idea of this book was one that I was all on board with. The before and after structure and countdown sections was very well done. However, I didn't particularly care about the characters. For every turn of phrase that I though was well done, there were paragraphs that I rolled my eyes at. It just tried to hard often. I'd have to read more to decide if it was just coincidence or not, but from the few John Green books I've read it seems like the narrators are largely interchangeable? And possibly very strongly self-insert in a boring way. I think this book wanted to critically analyze the problem of the manic-pixie-dream-girl and how people are more complex and have their own narratives and selves that we don't know...but I don't feel like it managed to pull it off.
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