Sarah's Book Post #5

Sarah Jory

Directed Studies

Book Post #5

Looking for Alaska

A novel that took my breathe away that I finished in a single car ride back to Atlanta from Savannah.  Looking for Alaska is one of my favorite books that I have read in 2014.  The novel was written by John Greene, the infamous author of A Fault in Our Stars.  However, this novel was nothing like the forced, literary drudge that is “AFIOS.”  After reading AFIOS I had many assumptions about John Greene and his style of literature.  But he did impress me as a reader with Looking for Alaska.  

The story does not take place in Alaska but at Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama.  The main character, Miles, is tired of his old, boring life that reminded me a lot of “Charlie” from Perks of Being a Wallflower.  This is a character I love to read about because they might seem boring from the outside but the “shy guy” is an awesome and quirky story teller to read from.  So Miles sets off to boarding school his junior year of high school and meets Colonel (real name Chip Martin), Takumi, and Alaska Young.  Alaska is a beautiful, wild girl who shows little to no interest in Miles.  

Throughout the story is is obvious of Miles’ fascination with Alaska Young.  But, right when they finally kiss and I became so interested in the story because I was so excited about their kindling love, she goes crazy and leaves campus while drunk and crashes her car and dies.  It was a tearjerker and I did not see this coming. However, the story had so many themes and lessons that apply to high school students.

Life is fleeting.  At boarding school, with tight dress code and strict rules, the students seemed more wild and reckless than at typical high school.  The juxtaposition between order and chaos is something that is typical of high school students.  The more order that is enforced upon us, the more chaos most students seek to create.  But, the chaos created by meager Miles and his wild friends caused Alaska’s death.  After her death Miles spent all his time obsessing about how this could have possibly happened to the girl he loved.  The tragedy taught Miles and Colonel so much about adolescence.  It was a tragic story but I think it was well written and I learned some life lessons from their tale.