Looking for Alaska in Insane Genre Challenge For 2016

Apr 08, 2012 Erin Dunn rated it liked it

Shelves: insane-genre-challenge-2016

http://angelerin.blogspot.com/2016/02...

I have been wanting to read Looking for Alaska for quite a while. Out of the John Green books I had read previously I really enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars, but I didn't care for Paper Towns. I've been curious about this one and I really needed a John Green tie-breaker. Unfortunately, since this one was very middle of the road, I still don't know where I stand on John Green books. They are all over the place for me.

I took a quiz once on Facebook (probably http://angelerin.blogspot.com/2016/02...

I have been wanting to read Looking for Alaska for quite a while. Out of the John Green books I had read previously I really enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars, but I didn't care for Paper Towns. I've been curious about this one and I really needed a John Green tie-breaker. Unfortunately, since this one was very middle of the road, I still don't know where I stand on John Green books. They are all over the place for me.

I took a quiz once on Facebook (probably Buzzfeed or something) that was to see what John Green character you are. My result was Alaska and after reading Looking for Alaska I'm not sure how I feel about that. She definitely is a screwed-up character! And very moody. Well I guess I can be very moody. :P

I enjoyed that Miles was looking for "The Great Perhaps." I could immediately connect with him as far as reading about adventures in books and wanting to find that in real life. I like that he read about going to boarding school in a biography and that led him to decide to attend a boarding school. I also liked that the boarding school was a school for smart kids and it was all very Dead Poets Society. Which I LOVE that movie!

The best part about Looking for Alaska was the humor. It wasn't ALL of the book, but the few humorous parts were pretty darn good. I wish there had been even more of that in the book. I also really liked the growth of Miles. His character development was pretty on point for his age. I can remember being that age between a kid and an adult and really finding out some things about the world. This is definitely a good one for TEENS. Not that it's bad for adults, but I think that maybe if I was still a teenager I would have appreciated this one even better.

One thing that really bugged me was the countdown in the book. It made the plot really obvious and it was distracting for me. The other thing I didn't care for was how the end (the after part) dragged on. It's already a short book, but it probably could have been even shorter. The end went on and on taking too much time exploring plot lines that were already extremely obvious.

Overall Looking for Alaska was mostly enjoyable, but it wasn't a GREAT book for me. I would still say it's worth a read though. Especially for someone who actually is a teen.

I recommend Looking for Alaska for fans of books with a screwed-up female character, Dead Poets Society, and boarding school novels.

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Jun 06, 2014 Nikki rated it liked it

Sigh. 2 1/2 stars? 3 stars? I'm not even really sure.

I'm going to hide as I write this. Don't want anyone coming after me.

I think I bought into all the hype with the book. I let it build up and maybe I expected to much out of it. For me, I couldn't connect with the characters. At all. I'm not sure if it was the writing style that caused that. Each 'chapter' lead down to the event, and the after counted the days as they dealt with the aftermath.

One hundred days before.
Eighty-seven days before.
F ...more

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Dec 14, 2019 Michelle (Bookaholic Banter) rated it really liked it

At first this book was mostly about kids experimenting, making friends, and young love. For this reason I almost rated it three stars. It wasn't until maybe the last fifty or so pages that it became something more and for this reason I gave it four stars.
This is a book I think every teenager going through loss or hard times should read. It is comforting in a way. This book actually made me think of my childhood friend I lost tragically in a house fire. Her entire family died. I was actually sup ...more

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Jan 04, 2018 Denise rated it it was amazing

I loved the book with the exception of how the female character was portrayed. There was drama and mystery 2 things I love in a book.

The boarding school setting was fun and just what you imagine when thinking about what life for them is like. The pranks were funny and gave a great comic relief.

But what happened to the female character left me with mixed feelings. On one hand everyone knows someone that acts like her on occasion. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that the storyteller does not th ...more

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