Looking for Alaska- Book Review

A short,pesonal review of Looking for Alaska, the three hundred paged book by John Green.

Have you ever read a book that makes you so emotionally unstable that you can never decide wether to truly love it or hate it so you just bury your head into it and cry and cry forever and feel as if your whole life has been made to read that book?

Of course, I began my trek through John Green’s world with the ubiquitous The Fault in Our Stars. How could I not? The cover alone whistles for you to take a look. I hadn’t yet heard of John Green and his tales that giveth and taketh away. What audacity he has, to sell and earn millions, while we sit on our couch in a fetal position, crying our hearts away.

I never thought I'd like a book that was narrated from the point of view of a boy. Teenage boys, to me, are as unfathomable and mysterious to me as women are to men.

Miles Pudge Halters,  leaves his everyday life at Florida to seek the 'Great Perhaps', an incessant search for a listless maybes and could bes.Pudge has been infatuated with learning the last words of famous people. From that, he has decided that he needs his own life of adventure, and thinks he will find that at the prep school in Alabama where his father was educated.

Miles reaches Culver Creek, where he immediately hordes up friendship with Chip (better known as Colonel), Takumi and the ever screwed up Alaska Young. Miles has a lot of living to do- pranking, smoking ,drinking,getting his first 'fellatio fiasco'- and a lot of lessons to learn. And before he knows it, he cannot help falling for the gorgeous, curvy, depressed Alaska Young.

The books is separated into converging sections of Before and After, and I found myself often asking,"Before what?!"    but turns out, I didn't have to wait long to find out.Although I'm not sure whether I actually wanted to find out.

As soon as Miles get the chance to finally put his hand under Alaska's shirt, their lives change. Their world is upside down and suddenly nothing is the same anymore. And Miles and his  friends seek questions of the question called Life, the learn, the weaken and they deal with the tragedy which shakes everybody up.

I don't know why I like this book so much. I guess what really speaks to me is its honesty. The way it deals with the complicated minds of teenagers. The way it supports feminism. The way it hits home so close to the heart. The way it defines love, friendship and the value that a person might have to another. That is where John Green's intelligence really shines through - the way it deals with true happenings without censorship, with more of real elegance and less of complaisant writing- so raw,genuine and easy to like.

There’s a harsh reality to this book, one that you don’t find in a lot of Young Adult literature (or Old Adult, even). These teens are shown in all of their glory, ugliness, bitterness, happiness, joy and puzzlement. They curse, they drink, they laugh, they struggle. There’s a stark honesty here that, if you’re over a certain age, you may have forgotten about. You weren’t all put together neatly at that age, remember? Everything seems to smooth out in our memories �" we’re never as horrible or profane or brazen when we look back. Our feelings and hopes are worn as badges, shiny at first, then they dull right before we hide them away.

Author's Note

It's my first book review ever, and I am completely alienated to how to produce a substantial one. I would love you to opinionate on how I could proceed writing them further.