Looking for Alaska

So, I did not come across this book in the normal way. I didn't read about it in a magazine, it didn't pop up on my Amazon recommends, it was recommended to me by a friend and I didn't discover it lying unloved on my bookshelf. No, rather, as a form of procrastination I have spent an awful lot of time lately on YouTube, discovering that there is more to it than musicians and animals doing cute things. One of the channels I came across was the Vlogbrothers, two slightly geeky American brothers communicating with each other via 'vlogs'. When I discovered that one of them, John, was an author I decided that I had to catch up.

Looking for Alaska is Green's first novel (he has since written two more; An Abudance of Katherines and Paper Towns) and it is very, very good. I'm pretty dubious about a lot of Young Adult fiction, as it seems that a lot of authors think if they make their books Skins on a page then it would sell. Whilst Green's book does contain swearing, sex, drinking and smoking, it is about a great deal more than that.

Miles Halter is a teenage boy who memorises people's last words, and arrives at the boarding school Culver Creek in Atlanta, having had a somewhat friendless time at the school he attended in Florida. When he arrives there he meets Chip Martin, who goes by the nickname The Colonel, and more importantly the 'hot' Alaska Young. Culver Creek is totally alien to Miles (now nicknamed Pudge as he is anything but), it is built on a code of honour that no one ever 'rats' on another student-they have their own ways of dealing with things.

Pretty soon, Miles becomes part of Culver Creek; smoking, drinking and (sort-of) dating a girl named Lara from Romania. He also becomes part of The Colonel's group, which includes Alaska and a Japanese student named Takumi. Yet it is Alaska who Miles is entranced by; she's beautiful, smart (she has stacks of books), lives recklessly and has an air of mystery about her.

If the first part of the novel seems to be a story of friendship and growing up, the second part studies the impact of death on people, what happens after death, and whether or not we ever really 'escape the labrinyth'. It is this part of the novel that is so poignant, and what separates Looking for Alaska from others in the Young Adult genre, it deals with real human emotion and the pain and confusion that comes from desperatly trying to place the blame.

All of Greens' characters are wonderfully formed. The novel is told purely through the first person perspective of Miles, who I had periods of really disliking especially in the second part of the novel, but in general he was a character with whom I emphasised, and it is always interesting to read a novel from the perspective of a boy. The Colonel is also a really interesting character, whose loyalty to his friends is hugely admirable. Alaska herself is well-created, as a reader we can see her flaws as well as what would attract Miles to her, she almost reminds me of Summer from (500) Days of Summer.

The novel is divided into 'Before' and 'After' parts, and the event which happened to separate the two quite suprised me. Although the final 'Before' chapter hinted at what was to come the fall-out from this event was incredibly moving.

I really enjoyed Looking for Alaska, and I'm looking forward to reading Green's other two novels when I get my hands on them.

Just a quick note; the only thing that I didn't like about this novel is its cover. Although a flower does indeed play a part in the novel Harper Collins' selection makes it look like a chick-lit book with very litte substance, which isn't helped by the write-up on the back. I think boys would enjoy this book just as much as girls and I would hate for them to be alienated because of the cover. Similarly, the novel's mediations on mortality deserve to be sold more than the fact that it involves a drunken make-out session.