I have been wanting to read Looking for Alaska for quite a while. Out of the John Green books I had read previously I really enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars, but I didn't care for Paper Towns. I've been curious about this one and I really needed a John Green tie-breaker. Unfortunately, since this one was very middle of the road, I still don't know where I stand on John Green books. They are all over the place for me.
I took a quiz once on Facebook (probably Buzzfeed or something) that was to see what John Green character you are. My result was Alaska and after reading Looking for Alaska I'm not sure how I feel about that. She definitely is a screwed-up character! And very moody. Well I guess I can be very moody. :P
I enjoyed that Miles was looking for "The Great Perhaps." I could immediately connect with him as far as reading about adventures in books and wanting to find that in real life. I like that he read about going to boarding school in a biography and that led him to decide to attend a boarding school. I also liked that the boarding school was a school for smart kids and it was all very Dead Poets Society. Which I LOVE that movie!
The best part about Looking for Alaska was the humor. It wasn't ALL of the book, but the few humorous parts were pretty darn good. I wish there had been even more of that in the book. I also really liked the growth of Miles. His character development was pretty on point for his age. I can remember being that age between a kid and an adult and really finding out some things about the world. This is definitely a good one for TEENS. Not that it's bad for adults, but I think that maybe if I was still a teenager I would have appreciated this one even better.
One thing that really bugged me was the countdown in the book. It made the plot really obvious and it was distracting for me. The other thing I didn't care for was how the end (the after part) dragged on. It's already a short book, but it probably could have been even shorter. The end went on and on taking too much time exploring plot lines that were already extremely obvious.
Overall Looking for Alaska was mostly enjoyable, but it wasn't a GREAT book for me. I would still say it's worth a read though. Especially for someone who actually is a teen.
I recommend Looking for Alaska for fans of books with a screwed-up female character, Dead Poets Society, and boarding school novels.
