Looking for Alaska

This book frustrates me, because the characters' feelings and musings are poignant and deep, but the over abundance of smoking and drinking by the main characters turns me off.

I don't like how easily Miles fell into smoking, something that is dangerous and a lifelong addiction. Books have tremendous influence over kids, and the fact that Miles suffered no more than a slap on the hand for his illegality doesn't send a good message.

Looking past the smoking a drinking, Green's thoughts on life, death, suffering and religion are thoughtful and relatable, and worth taking a look at.

Recommended by some students. Good, but not as good as The Fault in Our Stars.

The first book of John Green that I ever read. Amazing.

I think this book has some wonderful wording, believable characters (even though I really didn't like any of them, except the Colonel), and descriptions. That's what really kept me reading. I'm not big into YA type reads, especially about high school students being pointlessly youthful as the plot, but it was so well written and that's what hooked me. If you have the chance the audio book was a real treat! The narrator was really easy to listen to and had some great voices! I loved the Colonel's voice was very nice angst-y bass sound.

This was my first John Green book and I can see why people like to read him. I also read this because it's been on the banned book list for a while. We celebrate banned books here at Colona Library and I try to read one off the list every year. ~Ashley

quite an adorable book. sort of coming of age, prep school but with a twist, plausible ideas and imperfect people.

I love other John Green books, but wasn't a fan of this one. I found it to barely have a plot and the plot that was there was not super interesting. It does have some beautiful quotes though.

DNF ~ 50%Basically go read my [b: An Abundance of Katherines 49750 An Abundance of Katherines John Green https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1360206426l/49750.SY75.jpg 48658] review. :)

It's a thoroughly enjoyable book. It brought back many memories about growing up and that time in your life. But also the struggle of dealing with grief.

I don't think I liked that very much

I don't know how I feel about this book.
It was a bittersweet experience that left me in thoughts, which is exactly what a good book should do... so I guess there's my answer!

• Actual Rating 3.5 ⭐️•

Banned Book Prompt- my choice was Looking for Alaska. I am not the target audience for this story but I'm certain my 13 year old self would've thoroughly enjoyed it . This is quite the cautionary tale. The underage drinking, the dangerous consequences, the complicated pranks- it ends quite unglamorously- and that is something our teens need to read and hopefully think about. If you have a teenager- give them this book.

Compared to his other books, this one is much less gripping. Started reading it three times over the years, never finished it. So a DNF. Was this his debut? If so, he learned a lot after this one.

tudo para mim

That was very different from what I expected from a John Green book (the cover doesn't help, it looks like a Twilight spinoff– there's a Spanish edition that got it right with an Alaska lost in a maze but i digress).

It starts like the usual teen possible romance book, but this was mature instead of quirky. A bit of Dead Poet Society vibe going to it, the boarding school and scholarship kids setting makes the John Green characters believable for once– instead of the usual feeling of John trying too hard to make teen characters interesting and it ending up feeling like an adult is speaking through them. A true coming of age story and the struggles of figuring out the meaning of life.

4.5 ⭐️

For a YA book, this is pretty special. I loved how real the friendships felt. I remember when I was that age, how intense and important everything seemed. This was very reminiscent of my high school years.

This story is told in two parts, “before” and “after”. The “before” is really fun and nostalgic, and the “after” is beautifully done.

If you like young adult, highly recommend.
(And if you don't, I still kinda recommend.)

Hated the first half, loved the second

its very pretentious book. john greens writing always has to do with teens and philosophy istg. theyre so emo ALL THE TIME. even with that i enjoyed this book. plenty of times i got second hand embarrassment but thats normal with john green.

i love this book. i love how meaningful and impactful every single line is. when i was reading it constantly felt like i was looking for answers, like how i could find my own way out of the labyrinth, or what my great perhaps was/will be. this book just leaves me utterly curious about life, and i love it. i felt like alaska's character was so purposefully incomplete, and the mystery element of her personality really makes the book whole. no one never really knew alaska; for example, pudge started to forget things she did because he'd never really remembered those things about her. another example is the colonel forgetting what she looked like. i think those are significant things to portray how alaska was never really known, always half-seen. now if ur wondering what i think about alaska's death, i think it was suicide. i think she wanted to get out of her labyrinth of grief and hurt, “straight and fast”. she felt failure about her actions towards her mum, and felt as though the only thing she could do to make up for those actions was to die.

This book hit me more than I expected. John Green at his best.

the three stars are for the second half of the book which was actually entertaining and didn't make me uncomfortable by the unnecessary descriptions for a 16 year old girls boobs that a GROWN MAN wrote.

at first i was like “it's written from the perspective of a teenage boy, of course he'll have those thoughts.” and i really tried to understand that but i was literally so uncomfortable...

i don't see female authors writing about the way a teenage boys penis looks in his pants, do i?
(idk maybe some do but that's weird so stop)

DNF 33%

An excellent young adult book by John Green.
The book teaches us a lot about forgiveness and getting out of labyrinth in life.

i just love this book so much

This book is good, but the TV show is better and I'm gonna spend my entire life convincing everyone I meet to watch the TV show

Pretty standard coming-of-age stuff here, a quick and mostly enjoyable read. Deeper than your typical teen lit, getting into real questions of suffering and struggling to find your life's purpose.

Pros:
pretty funny
engages with religion thoughtfully in unexpected ways
the characters all feel like real people with their own quirks and issues
having grown up on a boarding school campus myself, the “campus vibe” felt really spot-on

Cons:
has the “let's include drugs/sex to feel edgy” vibe common in teen lit
She kind of falls into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope