Looking for Alaska

Another in my tour of banned books. This novel brilliantly captures the essence of high school friendships: the people you don't want to be without, but who also can drive you crazy. Also explores how we deal with heartbreaking events that leave us with no easy answers. Yes, there is smoking and drinking and a fumbling sex act in the book, but all of it is honestly done. These are clearly kids finding their way, which Green treats with sympathy and respect.

I don't know if it was because this wasn't aimed at my age group, but dear g-d this was painful to get through even in audio form.

The best part of this book is how philosophy is brought into the storyline so primarily and clearly. The whole book is geared towards getting the reader to think about life and what it means. Its a great read.

The least believable parts of the book is how the main character goes along with everything he's told. He's established as a kid with a sheltered upbringing yet does every expulsion-worthy task he's given. There is an emphasis on sexuality and drinking that seems over the top.

The ending is intentionally left partially unresolved and it adds to the theme that getting answers out of life is an exercise left to the reader.

It is hard to talk about why this book is good without spoiling it.
It is a story about how we project our expectations and ideals unto other people, how that prevents us from seeing them as they are and how that is not a healthy way to have relationships.
And if you don't know why that makes for a good story, you'll just have to read the book - because it really is just that good.

This book hit me more than I expected. John Green at his best.

Quite anti-climactic, since I accidentally read the blurb that was printed on the first page of my e-book and which spoiled the whole book. Why would you write such a blurb and the put it there? (I prefer my books without any previous knowledge of the plot, so I generally try to only read genre classification before deciding on a book).
Still, luckily that didn't harm the overall feeling of Looking for Alaska much, except maybe for a very strong feeling of "oh no, it's the day before, oh-o, it's the day, I don't want to continue, NO, how dare you". Once I got past that point, I didn't put it down and so I'm overly tired today. But it was worth it.

The blow job scene was hilarious and adorable. Apparently that is the scene that made parents challenge the book, saying something to the effect that it would cause teenagers to try sexual experimentation. Well, the initial attempt at a blow job failed, so I'm not sure how much experimenting that would lead to. Insert eye roll.

Not John Green's finest, but certainly better (more entertaining) than Paper Towns. And I don't remember any of the teenagers in my crowd being this witty and smart. I really don't.

Pretty good read. Would not recommend for the younger, or less mature, of the intended young adult readers.

Deals with light and very heavy material including smoking, drinking, sex and suicide.

I wouldn't want my oldest son to read this but his younger sister could. Why? Because my son is not emotionally ready for this material but my daughter is strong in emotional intelligence.

Your situation may vary.

Just beautiful. I read it in a day (an evening really), because I didn't want to lose that feeling of being in the story. It's not very long, so the characters aren't awfully complex, but their interactions were real, as was their growth.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't fall in love with this book. But it saved itself by the end.

What I did like: Chip, for the most part. His character stayed true throughout. The religion class, and the religion teacher. The ending, and the ending final paper. The character growth.

What I didn't like. Alaska. Trying too hard, she never rang true to me. I almost broke something with the ferocity of my eye-rolling. Miles at the beginning, although he grew on my by the end. The potential to really explore the issues presented, but the book skated where it could have gone deeper. But hey, it was his first book, so I gave it the extra star.

And based on this book, my kids will never attend boarding school. Seriously.

2 1/2 stars
I would have liked it more if I was 13, lol.

Good story about how even teens think about the big questions. Also the yearning to try to fit in and unfortunately how to deal with loss. Some of the things that happened to these kids seemed a bit far fetched IMHO.

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.

Really enjoyed it. Was a quick read.

Warning: does get depressing.

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.