I read “Looking for Alaska” by John Green. The novel is a teen fiction book written in the first person by the main character named Miles “Pudge” Halter. We follow Miles as he grows bored of his quiet life in Florida and ventures off to Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama where he hopes to find something he’s missing. While in Alabama, Miles meets Chip aka Colonel who becomes his best friend and the endlessly fascinating Alaska Young that he falls in love with and his life is never the same. This book was everything I hoped it would be, adventurous, exciting, and deeply intellectual.
I loved how the author made you feel so connected with the characters and what was going on in the book. For every one of their actions, I had an emotion threaded to it. Many teenagers are looking for their own adventure and this book makes you realize that it could be found anywhere, even at some boarding school in Alabama. The teen years are a time of self-realization and Miles found himself through experience.
Miles fell in love with Alaska for her danger and spontaneity and that was an adventure in itself. Alaska taught Miles a lot about life and when their time was cut short together she left him a changed person that knew what he wanted to earn out of his time on earth. This book made me realize that you need to find what you want out of life and find your adventure even if it takes someone else like Alaska to bring it out of you.
The book had a deeper meaning to it than you might see at first glance. The question that puzzled Alaska and Miles “How will we ever get out of the labyrinth?” has stayed with me ever since I read the book. They look for an answer to what the best way to go about being a person would be. The answer that Miles figures of has truly changed my perspective about life and people, I hope it changes yours too.