Thursday, September 6, 2012

Book Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 99

John Green's The Fault in our Stars is probably my favorite book of 2012, so I set out to read his other novels, including this one, which one the Prinz Award in 2006. Reading John Green's books always makes me feel like a little bit of a loser, because he's almost a decade younger than I am, and he's just so darn smart. Looking for Alaska is no exception. I still think I like The Fault in our Stars better, but this one is great too.

Miles is a high school junior who leaves Florida to attend his father's alma mater, a boarding school outside of Birmingham, Alabama. He's been kind of a nerd in his old school, and doesn't miss anything about his life in Florida, and he soon finds a rich social life, primarily centered on his roommate, the Colonel, and Alaska Young, who's sexy and smart, full of pranks and full of life.

I don't know how to talk about this book without giving away too much of the plot, but I'll say that Miles finds his world turned upside down, and while this is a traditional bildungsroman in the vein of The Catcher in the Rye, I'm not sure if Miles is the Holden Caulfield or Alaska is.

1 comment:

Katrina said...

Alaska, most likely. I never much liked holden caulfield either.