Does it remind me of another book? How so?

Looking for Alaska actually reminds me of another novel written by John Green called 'Paper Towns'. Paper Towns is about a boy named Quentin Jacobsen who has been in love with his childhood friend and neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman for as long as he can remember. Margo shows up in Quentin's window asking for his help of course he cannot refuse her and they spend an all-nighter together performing eleven pranks on people who have wronged her but the next day she's missing from school so him and his friends go on a road trip to find her and bring her home dead or alive. The similarities between the two novels are that both Margo and Alaska are very mysterious and adventurous girls who have been neglected from their parental figures, Pudge and Quentin are both very sweet and innocent boys who each fall in love with a very closed off, emotionally unattainable and mysterious girl. In Looking for Alaska when Alaska dies Pudge and their friends make it their mission to find out what happened to her and whether or she had committed suicide and in Paper Towns when Margo runs away (not the first time) Quentin and his friends make it their mission to find her. Quentin's friends start to believe it's a lost cause and that she's probably dead possibly from committing suicide but he doesn't listen and they set out on a road trip to find her either dead or alive. The last similarity of the two novels is that in Looking for Alaska John Green split the book into two section being, Before and After. In Paper Towns he John didn't split the book into sections but he did something kind of similar by starting off the book by writing in the past tense then switching to present tense. The books are very different in the larger sense of the storylines and in details but when it comes to certain details like the ones I mentioned they are very similar. -Jessica

What makes your book?

What I think makes my book is two of the main characters, Alaska and Pudge and their love story. Alaska makes the book because without her the book just wouldn't work it would be about a boy (Pudge) who sets off to Culver Creek to seek his great perhaps, hates it there because he has no friends and it's awful so he comes home. That sounds absolutely boring. Pudge and the Colonel would have never become friends if it wasn't for Alaska telling the Eagle about the two weekday warriors that broke the rules and got them expelled because if it wasn't for that Pudge would have never been taken in the night and thrown into the water by the weekday warriors, an event that really brought Pudge and the Colonel together. Pudge makes the book because although the book would be nothing without Alaska it wouldn't be anything with Pudge either because he is the main character and he didn't exist then it would be a book about the life and times of the students of Culver Creek, which would be interesting but not nearly as intriguing and interesting as it is with Pudge in it. The love story between Pudge and Alaska makes the story because without the love story the book would be very bland as it would be without either of them individually. Their love story isn't a regular love story of boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, live happily ever after, etc etc. It's differentiates from that a lot which is why I love their love so much. Pudge is so innocent and his love for Alaska mirrors that innocence, he's in love with a girl that is so very unreachable and very hard to reach on an emotional level because she's so closed off and Alaska always has this attraction towards Pudge which you definitely realize before her death has turned into love as well but I think in a different way then Pudge's love for her. -Jessica

How did you feel about the characters? Whom did you like or not like and why?

I felt that all the characters were very easy to love. Every character created by John Green is always so loveable. I loved all the main characters in this novel individually for many different reasons. What I liked about Pudge was that he refused to let himself waste his life away and wait to seek his Great Perhaps. He was impulsive to want to go to Culver Creek but it was a good thing and so many good things came from it. I admire his courage to be able to do what he did, because he just up and moved away from his parents to live in Alabama with a roommate he doesn't know and he's essentially starting over with a fresh start with all new people away from his family. What I like/don't like about Alaska is her mysteriousness. What I liked about her mysteriousness was that it always kept her very intriguing to myself and Miles but what I didn't like about it was the not knowing who she truly was. I think that like Pudge she's a very courageous person because of the traumatic event of her mom's death and her father abandoning her emotionally and blaming her, a child. Even after all that although she states to Miles that she is a deeply unhappy person she continues to live her life and let herself love and be loved because it's all she can do. She never lets herself be vulnerable and I think that's a very hard thing for someone to do which makes her courageous to be able to stay sane with all that going on in her head. Although Alaska's boyfriend wasn't one of the main characters of the book and hardly had any dialogue I found myself disliking him very much because my mind/heart was so set on Miles and her to be together so he kind of annoyed me for no real reason but that he was with Alaska and Miles wasn't. What I really liked about the Colonel was that he was very comedic, I found myself laughing aloud while reading things that he would say or do. I just really loved his character he always kept me laughing. -Jessica

What are the social issues explored in the book?

Some of the social issues explored in the book are teen suicide, underage drinking/drinking and driving. Teen suicide is explored in the book when Alaska dies and her friends start to believe that the car accident may not have been an accident and that Alaska may have committed suicide. Alaska had many issues in her life that made being happy very hard for her. "What you must understand about me is that I am a deeply unhappy person."- Alaska. She was a very mysterious person, her friends knew about the things she had gone through in her life but she never completely detailed it and she was never let herself be vulnerable even when she told Pudge about it she never really let anyone in. Her boyfriend may have known more but their relationship was never really presented a lot in the book only when Alaska would say how much she loved him. She kept everything bottled up inside which definitely caused her a lot of stress and unhappiness. She had also cheated on her boyfriend days before the accident and it was the anniversary of her mother's death so all of that triggered her to drink then drive and possibly commit suicide. Underage drinking is actually in this novel a lot. Miles, Takumi, the Colonel, Alaska and Lara all drink quite a lot and get drunk together a lot. They live at a boarding school so it's a little bit easier to get away with that stuff and they definitely take advantage. Nothing bad every came out of their drinking and it was bound to happen so when Alaska was drunk and decided to drive I immediately knew something bad was going to come of it. The outcome of the situation was inevitable, drinking and driving aren't exactly the best combination. Especially for Alaska Young. -Jessica

Looking for Alaska is a book about a young boy named Miles Halter (a.k.a Pudge) he leaves his old school for Culver Creek Boarding School and his life takes an exciting new turn. He ends up bunking with a guy named Chip a.k.a "The Colonel" who introduces him to his friends; Takumi,Lara and the intriguing Alaska Young. Alaska Young comes into Miles life and changes it forever.....