Looking for a Good Read? Look No Further!

By Guest Author, Taylor

Looking for Alaska, by John Green, is about a boy named Pudge. Pudge goes to boarding school where he meets The Colonel, Alaska, Takumi and Lara. Pudge picks up numerous bad habits, such as drinking and smoking, which are all social behaviors. The Colonel is a short built boy who doesn’t associate with many people except his close knit group of friends. Takumi is from Taiwan and is a friend of The Colonel. He often feels left out of plans that Pudge, The Colonel, and Alaska organize. Alaska is a bundle of cute, and Pudge sees her as a goddess. Alaska reads books and spends quality time with Pudge. Just as Pudge is getting used to life on campus something terrible happens. Alaska dies in a car crash. So The Colonel and Pudge try to look for clues about Alaska’s death. They try to figure out what was going through her mind and whether her death was a suicide or fate?

In this story, I fell in love with the characters. They felt real to me, and I truly think that they could be real people. In this book there is always a new twist or turn that will keep you engaged throughout the entire book.  It’s almost as if you can put it down. One thing that stood out to me was how they referred to their room as room 43, but they never said what any other person’s door number was. This book was so graphic it was almost like a picture that plays in your head while you’re reading it.  It could have been a movie. In this book John Green describes boarding school in a very false light. He describes it as if it is almost the promised land for drugs, sex, and alcohol. I would recommend this book to any teenager or young adult who needs to get out of their head. Also I would not suggest this book to any first-time high school boarding students. They will get their hopes up and be sadly disappointed.  Also, I thought this was going to be an underdog story, but it wasn’t.  Even in John Greene’s world, Alaska would never go out with Pudge.  Overall, however, I thought the book was really good.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

If you want to feel anything at all, any human emotion, this book will bring you on the verge of tears.