Looking for Alaska

by John Green

Paperback

Published July 3, 2006 by HARPER COLL CHILDREN.

ISBN:: 978-0-00-720924-8
OCLC Number:: 156684260

(121 reviews)

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same

22 editions

Sergio reviewed Looking for Alaska by John Green

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I get the feeling that although the author's intentions for turning the latter part of this novel into an opportunity to discuss the nature of forgiveness and loss and guilt and (...) were well-placed, both the length of the book and the way the narrative was arranged into short, day-long episodes didn't really lent themselves to effectively getting that message through. I did read most of it in one sitting though, and it was pretty much what I expected in the sense that John Green was the first author mentioned when I looked for books similar to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but this might have been a bit too similar to that one and I liked Perks better. I think I might have liked this one more if I'd read it some years ago instead.

halkeye reviewed Looking for Alaska by John Green

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Really enjoyed it. Was a quick read.

Warning: does get depressing.

Niko reviewed Looking for Alaska by John Green

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I think this book hit me in the right place at the right time... because I picked it up at midnight and here I am, three and a half hours later, bawling like a baby. Maybe I'm just really tired.

Juliane reviewed Looking for Alaska by John Green

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Ehrlich gesagt, weiß ich gar nicht, wie ich meine Gefühle zu diesem Buch ausdrücken soll. Denn es hat mich auf der emotionalen Ebene kein Stück berührt. Ich mochte keine der Personen und auch die Gefühle zwischen den Personen konnte ich nicht spüren. Das hat mich überrascht. Denn erst vor wenigen Tagen habe ich "The fault in our stars" von John Green gelesen und war zutiefst berührt (Tränenbäche!). Das Ereignis, auf das in diesem Buch hinab gezählt wird, war für mich nicht mal schockierend. Fast habe ich mit so etwas gerechnet. Alles hat mich kalt gelassen. Wäre es also dabei geblieben, hätte ich dem Buch nur 2 Sterne gegeben.
Aber da war noch etwas anderes. Die philosophische Ebene des Buches war faszinierend. Gerade zum Ende der Geschichte, hat der gesamte Roman dadurch extrem gepunktet. Sehr viele Gedankenanstöße!

Es ist ein Entwicklungsroman, der keinen Spaß macht, aber sicherlich eine Bereicherung für das …

Shawn Towner reviewed Looking for Alaska by John Green

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

I loved [b:The Fault in Our Stars|11870085|The Fault in Our Stars|John Green|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327880382s/11870085.jpg|16827462] so I decided to give this one a try. I can understand why teenagers would like it, but I felt that this was more conventionally YA than Fault. All the characters are perfectly quirky until it's more emotionally useful for them to not be. It felt like I was reading about characters in a YA novel, rather than reading about people who just happen to also be characters in a YA novel, which is what the characters in Fault seemed like.

boomboxnation reviewed Looking for Alaska by John Green

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

After scanning the rest of the reviews here, I'm glad that my planned first line actually makes sense to someone other than just me: Almost anything I could say about this book would be a spoiler. (Even that is a spoiler)

So I won't talk about the story. I had no idea it was generally categorized as "Young Adult" or "Teen" fiction when I checked it out and I didn't read it as such. I'm not anywhere near a "young adult" anymore...but golly, I do remember that time period a little too clearly.

This is a serious question, would any of you classify Catcher in the Rye as purely for "young adults"?

I loved it. I was laughing AND crying, I like that kind of book in between the stale 12-grain rye.

NowWeAreAllTom reviewed Looking for Alaska by John Green

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I think this got off to a bit of a shaky start, with generic and not-very-engaging characters and some rather pedestrian prose (I mean, I realize this book is meant for younger readers, but as this is John Green I had higher expectations). But at the turning point of the book it begins to examine some more interesting subject manager, and in doing so it makes the characters more interesting. By the end I found I really liked the book. I didn't enjoy it as much as Paper Towns, but I liked it well enough.