Looking For Alaska

Synopsis:

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Thoughts:

This was a particularly great book. I have heard a lot about how controversial this novel is, and decided to finally read it for myself. Miles Halter leaves his home to attend the boarding school of his father: Culver Creek High School. Obsessed with last words and seeking his "great perhaps", he begins with great a journey that will change his life forever. Soon after arriving, he meets his roommate, The Colonel, and Alaska, a hot but emotionally unstable girl that he becomes totally obsessed with. It is she who introduces him the the last words of Simon Bolivar, "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?" As the story goes on, this quote begins to elude to a labyrinth of suffering in life that we all try to escape. I began to love this quote because it encompassed what Miles had to actually do when trying to escape Alaska's labyrinth of suffering by forgiveness. Another particularly interesting plot point was the memorization of last words. Miles believes that they hold what the person's life was about, like the conclusion to the end of a story. He too wishes to live a life worth living by seeking his "Great perhaps." Unfortunately, he does this by drinking, smoking, pranking, cussing, and engaging in sexual behavior. I have to admit that several of the pranks were brilliant and well worth reading. The other things, however, were a bit on the edgy side, so I wouldn't recommend this book to a younger reader. These things did serve a purpose, though. Part of the main theme of the book is the self- discovery of adolescence. I thing John Green definitely drove this point home. Alaska was an amazing character. She was so spontaneously brilliant and annoying at the same time. It's hard not to love her, despite her flaws. She was seeking her way out of the labyrinth of suffering that she had felt ever since her mother passed away, and that may have been why she acted like she did. It was she who finally showed Miles his "great perhaps", after he was pulled into her "labyrinth of suffering" after a horrible tragedy. 

Three Stars