Review: Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have seen this book on several banned books lists so I selected it for my book club's banned book for this year. It didn't take long to see why it's been banned!

Tired of his life in public school, Miles "Pudge" Halter convinces his parents to send him to the same boarding school his father attended largely due to all the stories Miles has heard of his father's glory days while attending. Virtually friendless at home in Florida, upon his arrival in Alabama, christened "Pudge" by his roommate ("the Colonel"), Miles quickly becomes a part of the Colonel's circle of friends - ultimately falling for friend and fellow classmate, the troubled Alaska Young.

The book is told in the form of a countdown (138 days before, 129 days before, etc) with the reader not knowing what was being counted down. (Or maybe just me since I didn't read the cover to see what the book was about - hence my surprise it doesn't take place IN Alaska as I just assumed based on the title). As the story unfolded, I had a pretty good of what was going to happen - and I was mostly right as to what that was. The second half starts the clock over, this time counting up instead of down.

The first half of this book really sucked me in, though I found Pudge to be a bit too self-indulging and whiny in the second half. I have not read anything else by John Green, but "The Fault in Our Stars" is on my list, which made me nervous to read this one out of fear I wouldn't like it. The intentional vagueness of the tragic event in the book has left me wondering what really happened to Alaska, as it was meant to; I'm really glad I read the interview with John Green at the end of the book as I felt it made the book stronger to read what his thoughts were as he wrote it.

This book is definitely not a wholesome story but I don't feel it's entirely unrealistic either in terms of students seeing how far they can push their boundaries and wanting to act like adults while they are still in school. Conservative parents will have a hard time with letting their children read this one as will parents who fear their children are super impressionable and will emulate the actions they see other teens partaking in (yes, Dad, I mean you). But it's very well-written and while I can see why it's banned, it's a shame that it is.

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