A review by karagee
Looking for Alaska by John Green
3.0
This is my first foray into John Green so I figured I ought to start with his debut novel, Looking for Alaska. To be honest, all I really knew about John Green was that he wrote that weepy novel about the cancer kids and I avoided it like the plague because I am in my 30s, and teen romance rarely appealed to me even when I was a teen. I can see the appeal in Green, though, and I probably would have enjoyed Looking for Alaska a lot more if I had read it when I was 18.
Green's debut novel is the story of Miles Halter, a high school junior and a loner with a penchant for memorizing famous people's last words. Miles decides to leave home for the boarding school his father once attended in search of "the great perhaps," an elusive feeling of fulfillment Miles hopes will give him some meaning or direction in his aimless life.
At Culver Creek boarding school, Miles unwittingly makes his first real friends: his short but incorrigible roommate Chip "The Colonel" Martin; the "hottest girl" Miles has ever seen, Alaska Young; and their friends, Takumi and Lara. Miles is initially in over his head at Culver Creek--quite literally, as the rich kids that the Colonel has dubbed "Weekday Warriors" bully Miles by tossing him in a lake--but Miles' new friends immediately take him under their wing.
Looking for Alaska has all of the things you'd expect to be in a teen melodrama:
- A lonely wallflower unreservedly embraced by a group of 'cool' outsiders who despise the rich and popular crowd out of some sort of undefined obligation;
- Vaguely ethnic friends whose chief defining qualities are their vague ethnicity;
And most importantly,
- A Mary Sue dream girl with a tragic past whom everyone desperately loves, even though she's not that nice.
The story is split into two parts, "Before" and "After," complete with a countdown of days to the book's defining incident. I won't say what that incident is, but I will say that it was somewhat predictable, even with my limited knowledge of John Green's style. If you haven't figured out by now, even though Miles is the protagonist, the book revolves around Alaska (who named herself when she was four, natch). She's, like, literally, the hottest girl Miles has ever seen, and she smokes and drinks strawberry wine she obtained with her fake ID. And she openly talks about sex like it's no big deal. And she flirts with everyone even though she has a boyfriend. And she has too many books and doesn't like going home for the holidays. And did we mention that she's hot?
If you haven't figured it out by now, I am not Alaska's biggest fan, but the story is chiefly preoccupied in the search for what makes her tick. It gets all muddled up in Miles' competing theme of figuring out what this life thing is all about, a common concern for teenage protagonists who are predisposed to overthinking. As a complete piece, the story tries for depths but splashes in the shallows; teenage me would have probably loved it; 32-year-old me found it a bit cringeworthy, but in a fond sort of way.
Green's debut novel is the story of Miles Halter, a high school junior and a loner with a penchant for memorizing famous people's last words. Miles decides to leave home for the boarding school his father once attended in search of "the great perhaps," an elusive feeling of fulfillment Miles hopes will give him some meaning or direction in his aimless life.
At Culver Creek boarding school, Miles unwittingly makes his first real friends: his short but incorrigible roommate Chip "The Colonel" Martin; the "hottest girl" Miles has ever seen, Alaska Young; and their friends, Takumi and Lara. Miles is initially in over his head at Culver Creek--quite literally, as the rich kids that the Colonel has dubbed "Weekday Warriors" bully Miles by tossing him in a lake--but Miles' new friends immediately take him under their wing.
Looking for Alaska has all of the things you'd expect to be in a teen melodrama:
- A lonely wallflower unreservedly embraced by a group of 'cool' outsiders who despise the rich and popular crowd out of some sort of undefined obligation;
- Vaguely ethnic friends whose chief defining qualities are their vague ethnicity;
And most importantly,
- A Mary Sue dream girl with a tragic past whom everyone desperately loves, even though she's not that nice.
The story is split into two parts, "Before" and "After," complete with a countdown of days to the book's defining incident. I won't say what that incident is, but I will say that it was somewhat predictable, even with my limited knowledge of John Green's style. If you haven't figured out by now, even though Miles is the protagonist, the book revolves around Alaska (who named herself when she was four, natch). She's, like, literally, the hottest girl Miles has ever seen, and she smokes and drinks strawberry wine she obtained with her fake ID. And she openly talks about sex like it's no big deal. And she flirts with everyone even though she has a boyfriend. And she has too many books and doesn't like going home for the holidays. And did we mention that she's hot?
If you haven't figured it out by now, I am not Alaska's biggest fan, but the story is chiefly preoccupied in the search for what makes her tick. It gets all muddled up in Miles' competing theme of figuring out what this life thing is all about, a common concern for teenage protagonists who are predisposed to overthinking. As a complete piece, the story tries for depths but splashes in the shallows; teenage me would have probably loved it; 32-year-old me found it a bit cringeworthy, but in a fond sort of way.