Hey! So I got the ok to add other media items to my passion blog because the podcasts reviews were leaving me really uninspired – also I no longer walk around campus, so I no longer need hours of podcasts to fuel my week and fill my headphones.
Today I am going to be talking about one of my favorite books of all time, Looking For Alaska. I recommend this book for those of us who want to fill their time at home with a very beautiful and captivating story, but I realize this book may just be right under the age range of my classmates. I first read this book years ago when I was a teenager, and I think it is most suited for readers who are around the age of the protagonist – 16 – but John Green is an absolutely brilliant author and this is his greatest work in my opinion so I would still recommend it to everyone. Oh yeah, and I found the pdf online pretty easily.
So what do I love about this story? Well, I recently decided to reread it and write about it here so it must be a lot. This story is very sad, but it’s sad in a different kind of way. My passion blog last semester was about grunge music, and I wrote that a huge part of the pain expressed in grunge isn’t from the bad things that happen to you, but it’s a process of grieving the beautiful times in our lives we have lost because time is always changing. Looking For Alaska captures the exact kind of heart-wrenching melancholy; it explores the idea of growth and love in adolescence and the transformation of the beautiful moments of our life into memories.
The story follows Miles Halter as he moves from Florida to Alabama to attend a boarding school known for its wild pranks and antics. Miles, an intelligent introvert, is introduced to a girl named Alaska through his roommate. The three of them form a close friendship as they maneuver through the social politics of their school, the odd collection of teachers, and the southern heat. Miles falls in love with Alaska almost instantly as she challenges him to explore who he really is, and what he really wants out of the world. While Alaska is funny, wild, and beautiful, she is also deeply troubled. As Miles begins to understand who Alaska is under the layers, he sees the multi-dimensional aspect of human existence.
I recommend this book because it’s hilarious and it’s hauntingly impactful. John Green writes some incredible characters in this book that are hard to forget. I also recently saw a Hulu add that this is a series. I’m totally going to have to watch it after I reread it and do a comparison for a blog.