Looking for Alaska

I swear I already wrote a review of this but I just saw it on my to-read list still so, whatever. Anyway, this is John Green's first book but I read it after An Abundance of Katherines & Paper Towns. He definitely has a thing for writing about nerdy boys and hot, quirky girls, but this is, I guess, his first book about nerdy boys and a hot, quirky girl. Luckily, he also gives the hot, quirky girls personalities and depth so they move beyond Garden State-cliché level.
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re-read for Banned Books Week. Still not my fav of JG's books, but also still think people mad about Alaska being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl lack reading comprehension skills. also, after watchin the Hulu series I was surprised to realize that the Colonel isn't canonically Black? His only given physical descriptors are short and dark hair. good call Hulu bc I think having him Black adds a depth to his character & his outrage at his more privileged peers. (I mean there was nothin stopping me from headcanoning him as Black when I read it the first time except my own white privilege but, still!)

anyway I still think it's a good book and I still think it's dumbbb to ban it over the blowjob scene but also it's not my fav JG book.

Flash forward the age groups represented in [Bridge to Terabithia:] about 5 years, set it in a boarding school and you have [Looking for Alaska:].
The plot progression in the two are almost identical. That's not a slight at all, BTT is one of my favorite youth books ever.

Oh well! Looking for Alaska does have a hilarious scene where the main character sustains a concussion that made me laugh out loud. I can't remember the last book to make me actually laugh.

Alex M. recommended this book to me and I couldn't put the book down ( thats when i wasn't doing hwk). This book was amamzing from the beginning to the end, questioning the bigger meanings in life such as how can we escape the labyrinth of suffering? Or How can we search for our Great Perhaps? Throughout the book, we look at the lives of Miles “Pudge” Halter, Alaska Young, Chip “The Colonel” Martin and Takumi Hikomito as they try to figure out their purposes in life at a Alabama boarding school where the rich preppy kids are separated from the poor. But most importantly, they never rat on each other for anything. When a tragic accident occurs, the whole meaning of life changes right before their eyes, and uses their interests in biographies, literature and religion to sort of help them escape that ongoing labyrinth. I recommend it to everyone