Looking for Alaska – John Green

Having been so impressed with The Fault in our Stars I decided to take a look at what else John Green has written, and really there’s no better place to start than with his debut, Looking for Alaska. I must say I am becoming quite a fan of his as I really enjoyed this novel too.

While both are YA fiction, this is where the similarities end. In Looking for Alaska Miles ‘Pudge’ Halter arrives at Culver Creek looking for the Great Perhaps – great adventures, great friends and good times. This he finds in the Colonel, Takumi and the unforgettable Alaska Young. The narrative follows them through the trials and tribulations of boarding school – dodging authority figures, pulling legendary pranks and getting even with the ‘weekday warriors’.

In the first half of the novel the chapter headings count down to an event, and this creates tension as to where the story is going to take you. In order to dominate the novel’s structure you know that it is going to be something big, and when it happens it definitely resonates with both the characters and the reader.

John Green writes young people in a believable and well-rounded way, giving them depth as opposed to being stereotypes or caricatures. In Looking for Alaska he perfectly captures the feelings of alienation, confusion and isolation felt as a teenager, even when amongst friends. His exploration of death and the consequences for those that are left behind is also very powerful. I have concluded that it is not safe to read any of his novels on public transport! While this book took slightly longer to get into than The Fault in our Stars, it was a very enjoyable, very moving novel that I would definitely recommend.

Looking For Alaska John Green HarperCollins