Tolog Review: Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska
by John Green
reviewed by Alexandra Artura 

Growing up can be full of happy experiences and even hardships. Meeting and losing people that you love can have a profound effect on the person you become. Looking For Alaska by John Green follows Miles “Pudge” Halter on his journey towards finding true friends, discovering a place where he belongs, and searching for his “great perhaps.”

Pudge moves from Florida to Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama and becomes fast friends with his new roommate “The Colonel”, Takumi, Lara, and Alaska. They all teach him how to let loose and have fun for the first time in his life. As they start to open up about themselves, and learn more about each other, they all grow closer as friends and form an unbreakable bond. Whether it’s tormenting “The Eagle”, piling into the car for a McDonald’s trip, or pulling infamous school pranks, they broke the rules and caused mischief everywhere they went.

Perhaps the person that had the biggest impact on Pudge was Alaska. She was daring, light-hearted, and carefree; everything that Pudge seemingly wasn’t. But that’s what he loved about Alaska. Pudge and Alaska could talk for hours about books, and authors, and “the labyrinth”, and anything else they could think of. When Alaska died in a car crash, Pudge was completely beside himself. Pudge realized through losing Alaska how much he had loved her and how much he missed her and that he still needed her in his life. In the short time that they knew each other, Pudge and Alaska learned more and more about themselves and each other.

Losing his best friend was so tragic for Pudge, but he didn’t know how much Alaska meant to him until she was gone. Looking For Alaska demonstrates the bond between true friendships, and how people can transform each other’s lives. It also gave me an insight into the not-so-normal lives of these five teenagers from the wrong side of the tracks. I would have never expected the book to end up as it did, and it made it so much more heart breaking for me because I was so attached to the characters. John Greene does an amazing job at keeping you interested and writing in a way that you can relate to. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, especially if you’re looking for a book that has true meaning and heart.