Tolog Review: Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska
by John Green 
reviewed by Catherine Doud

Looking For a Good Book to Read?

“Be QUIET! I’m TRYING to READ HERE!” The previous quote is one of the things that people who read Looking for Alaska say when they are well into the book. I know this from personal experience from when my friends first read this book. Looking for Alaska by John Green is one of those books that you can’t possibly put down. Even if you had to put the book down, it’s hard not to think about what might happen next or spending every waking moment to try solving one of the many perplexing puzzles that captivate all readers that get sucked into the story. 

I’ll try not to spoil anything in the story for you, so here it goes. This fantastical story starts with Miles, and average loner who doesn’t have many friends and is leaving public school to go to Culver Creek Preparatory School where his dad attended high school. He travels from his home in Florida to the boarding school in Alabama to search for his ‘Great Perhaps,’ the same great perhaps that a poet named François Rabelais said he was going to search for before he died.

The Great Perhaps leads Miles to make interesting friends with his roommate “the Colonel,” the prettiest girl he had ever seen (Alaska), Takumi, and Lara. Miles learns how to smoke, and their gang plays the best pranks in the history of Culver Creek with the mastermind of Alaska. They get in and out of trouble and drink Strawberry Hill wine; creating an amazing experience to Miles (nicknamed Pudge) until something happens which I am using all of my strength not to write. But when Colonel and Pudge spend forever trying to find out what happened in the incident; they lose themselves. 

You will have to find out for yourself what the incident is, what it means to try to escape the labyrinth, what a bufriedo is, and how Takumi becomes a fox, but first you MUST read this book. This isn’t just an average teenage love story, and words cannot express how emotional this book is. John Green puts in elements of mystery and sadness, but somehow incorporates humor and lightness in some of the book, making this one of my favorite books.

Personally, I think that everyone should read this wonderful book, but I realize that it is most appropriate for high school/college levels. If you are looking for an easy read that will blow you away and captivate you, then Looking for Alaska is the way to go.