Let’s Go Looking For Alaska
note: this is a spoiler-free review. Which is hard, considering that most of this book revolves around a single event. The chapters are even titled “X days before” and “X days after” this event.
The Good: the greatest achievement of this book is that it made me like the protagonist, Pudge, within the first two or three pages. As a writer, I find this quality tremendously enviable. Right away, I wanted to see Pudge succeed, so it didn’t really matter what happened after that, I was along for the ride.
John Green has this cunning ability to weave tragedy and comedy together without sacrificing the tone; characters can laugh and cry on the same page and I believe both.
Also, he finds a way to easily integrate a lot of thematic discussion about religion without making it dry or feel like a lecture. This book was never dull.
The Bad: The only gripe of Looking For Alaska has nothing to do with the author. It has to do with a review (and a professional review, not some amateur shmamatuer review on Amazon or Goodreads) that said something like “you’ll be able to deduce quickly that X happens” which spoiled the whole book. Um, dude, maybe I would have been able to do my own deducing, if you hadn’t told me, jerk.
But even though I knew X, I still liked the story. So if you’ve had the secret spoiled, go ahead and read it.
Also, for a YA book, there’s a lot of boozin and whorin and smokin and swearin. When I was a young adult, I was a big fan of all those things, but I’m just saying. Didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, but some people might consider parts of the subject matter a little racy for teens.
I would advise that if you intend to read Looking For Alaska because you’re a fan of John Green’s other work, don’t go out and read other reviews (why would you want to read anyone else’s reviews but mine, by the way? ahem.) because you’re likely to have the twist spoiled for you. Just read it.