Looking For Alaska By: John Green

Looking For Alaska, by John Green, is a very good read. Its about a kid named Miles Cavalry, who just doesn't fit in in his school. He's a bit of a geek but a really nice guy that no body notices. He decides to leave his public H.S. school to go to his father's old private H.S.,Culver Creek Predatory School, in search of the 'Great Perhaps.' The 'Great Perhaps,' is something exciting.Nothing planned or known. Its the possibility of what could happen.Miles meets some great friends there and gets a neat nick name from his new room mate Chip, AKA -The Colonial. Miles becomes - Pudge. Through the Colonial Pudge meets Takumi, a Japanese guy who loves to rap, Laura, the Romanian with big beautiful eyes, and Alaska who is a beautiful, smart, devious, fascinating, and a deeply disturbed. Pudge notes that if he were rain Alaska would be a hurricane! Having watched her mother die right in front of her as a small child has turned Alaska into someone with very high "ups," and very "low," downs. She's moody yet deeply passionate. Loves to read and had a huge pile of books in her room she called her " life's library." Books that she intended to read before she died. Alaska love her boyfriend Jake, loves and is absolutely loyal to her friends, and hates going home. So much so that she did the unthinkable- she ratted out some fellow students to avoid going home. This book is not just about H.S., learning to smoke and drink, and sexual things, its about finding your way through Simone de Bolivard's -Labyrinth,' the suffering and how lost you can get in life. Alaska asks the question, How does one get out of the labyrinth? For her the answer was "straight and fast."

Culver Creek has a tradition of pulling pranks. In fact Pudge's Dad was legend for his pranks. The Eagle, the adult in charge of keeping the students in line and punishment, is always the "man" you have to prank best to get away with anything. Pudge, the Colonial(the master mind), Takumi, Laura, and Alaska pull off a great prank on the "Weekday Warriors,"(kids that are wealthy and go home for the weekend), and get away with it. They have a great time.

Pudge, the Colonial, and Takumi all love and are mesmerized by Alaska. She is beautiful, fun, and secretive. After the prank they all got extremely drunk together and played a drinking game- Best day/Worst day. They found out some very important things about each other, and some cryptic things about Alaska's deep inner sadness. Soon after Alaska was in Pudge's and the Colonial's room, all quite drunk, and Alaska started to seductively kiss Pudge who was very confused because Alaska loves her boyfriend, but then thats Alaska -impulsive and not always thinking everything through. All of a sudden Alaska up in absolute panic desperate to leave pleading for help to get her off campus so she can drive - somewhere.The shocker of the story is Alaska who burns so bright in life dies that night in a horrible car crash. Now Pudge and the Colonial (Takumi and Laura) are left to face the demons Alaska left them with - the why? Pudge and the Colonial are devastated and get so wrapped up with 'the why' of it that they are consumed by it. They become locked in Alaska's labyrinth. They try so hard to figure out why. Almost as a way of healing , the Colonial master minds a fantastic plot in Alaska's memory and they pull off the greatest prank of all pranks. Its mint! Pudge even gets his father involved. In a set-up phone call to the Eagle, Pudge's father pretends to be Dr. William Morse-a supposed professor from the University of Florida whose expertise just happens to be adolescent sexuality.Pudge suggested Dr. Morse be the Jr. class's guest lecturer at Culver Creek's annual " speaker day." In reality Dr. William Morse is actually a very well built male stripper named Maxx. Quite stoically, Dr. Morse begins his lecture and then all "----" breaks loose when Takumi hits the music and Maxx strips! The audience erupts into screams and whoops-laughter- and total chaos! Wish I could have been there.

This stuff though is not the most important message in the book. These happy go lucky friends now have to deal with the huge loose of a their friend Alaska, who left them suddenly and tragically. Honestly, I don't think it was Alaska's intention to die, what ever was going on in her head I think she just did not think it through. This book is about Pudge's journey into the labyrinth to find The Great Perhaps. In there Pudge finds great friends and then suffers the loss of an important one. They get pulled apart and drawn together again and learn to go on they must forgive each other for loosing Alaska, and Alaska for leaving.There is a great line at the end of the book that I thought was quite deep. "If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can't know better until knowing better is useless"(218). Knowing is never useless. Great book with a good message. I recommend it to high schoolers and older.

Keep reading,
Devon