Book Reviews

Looking For Alaska

Looking For Alaska by John Green

Published by Dutton Penguin

Published on March 3rd, 2005

Cover Rating: 4/5

Story Rating: 5/5

Synopsis:

BEFORE. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is and event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

AFTER. Nothing is ever the same.

Review: I am going to start by saying that this is by far, my favorite book. I do not really know why because I did not really questioned my existence or what is my purpose on Earth, but I simply believe that I was at a darker/sadder place back when I read it. I read the story twice, and surprisingly I cried both times. Let me tell you, when it comes to good books or movies, I am a crybaby (also a Melanie Martinez fan, but I meant the tear-shedding one here).

Anyway, about the story, it has a very interesting plot. It is not very cliché-ish, yet there is still some crushes/falling-in-love-with-people-you-can't-have kind of scenes. Alaska Young, what can I say about her? She's obviously not perfect, she's stubborn, funny, etc. Alaska has this kind of thing where she just goes completely weird, I do not want to make fun of any mental sickness or say I am a psychologist, but it was kind of a bipolar personality. Well, that's what I used to think while I was reading the "before" part, then the thing happened (no spoilers). Then, I created a theory that stated that she was not entirely had a mental sickness, but was in the middle of developing one. Sadly, there are no actual things we could read about how she felt when she was alone, if she ever over-thought the things she had gone through in if, because the minute Pudge was not with her, there was no actual description of her whatsoever. Pudge is the typical guy who has a crush on a girl he can't have, but there's a really good reason why he can't have her (again, no spoilers).

The font size is not one of my favorites, because is a bit small, but the grammar and everything that comes within it is pretty amazing. The chapters hurt you each time you read them, because you know somehting is about to happen, and you desperately want to find out, but you do not want anything to change (1 day before, 1 day after). I made an average on cover rating because there is like over 6 different covers for this book, my favorite one being the second in the picture, but I have the first one and I like that one as well. 

Quotes: You don't know how many quotes I wish to put here, but I'll try to calm down.

"The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive." 

"Thomas Edison's last words were "It's very beautiful over there". I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful."

"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."

"When I look at my room, I see a girl who loves books."

""What the hell is that?" I laughed.
"It's my fox hat."
"Your fox hat?"
"Yeah, Pudge. My fox hat."
"Why are you wearing your fox hat?" I asked.                                                                                         "Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox."" 

"I may die young, but at least I'll die smart."

"What you must understand about me is that I'm a deeply unhappy person."

""It's not because I want to make out with her."

"Hold on." He grabbed a pencil and scrawled excitedly at the paper as if he'd just made a mathematical breakthrough and then looked back up at me. "I just did some calculations, and I've been able to determine that you're full of shit.""    

"And then something invisible snapped insider her, and that which had come together commenced to fall apart."

"Sometimes you lose a battle. But mischief always wins the war." 

"I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God."

"We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreperably broken."

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Thanks for reading my review, I hope you get to read my future ones. If you have any book you recommend, please leave their name/names on the comment section or send them through PM, I will try to get them as soon as I can, or perhaps write their review if I have already read them.

If you have read the books I will or have reviewed, leave your rating or an opinion if you desire, I want see books from your perspectives as well.

Please, respect. These are my opinions and if you desire to put yours on the comments, make them be about the book. You can comment if I have a grammatical error or so, but please respect my opinion of the book/books, as I will do with yours.

Thank you, and may you have a wonderful life.