Warning Spoilers ahead
This summer I have read John Green's Micheal L Printz Award winning book Looking For Alaska. Many of you may know John Green through his Youtube Channel: CrashCourse or some of his other works such as Papertowns and The Fault in . I was also very excited to find out that there was a movie being made based on Looking for Alaska here is the link http://youtu.be/e8qa-7kgjr0. Well I decided to read his best selling book out of interest in him and the summary made the book sound like an interesting read, and it was. Looking for Alaska is about a 17 year old boy named: Miles "Pudge" Halters must go from his boring life in Florida and transfer to the most prestigious boarding school in Alabama, Culver Creek, where he gets involved in all kinds of shenanigans. Miles' first days at Culver Creek are some of the most interesting in the first act of the book, One week before school starts and Miles is moving into his dorm room he meets his roommate known as "The Colonel", The Colonel is the strong silent type who is lacking in height but makes up for it with his wit. The Colonel gives Miles his new nickname, Pudge, because he is so scrawny. After the nickname is given, Pudge is told about the number one rule at Culver Creek, DON'T RAT, for just last semester before the summer break, before Pudge was transferred to Culver Creek, someone ratted out two of Alaska Young's best friends and got them expelled. The Colonel and Pudge quickly become friends and the Colonel introduces Pudge to two other main characters, Takumi and Alaska. Takumi is a quiet and laid back guy with absolutely no table manners and unlike the Colonel and Alaska, is not a heavy smoker. Alaska is arguably the most influential character on Pudge because she always references a book titled "The General in his Labyrinth", from this book Alaska always talks about a "Labyrinth of suffering" and how there is only one way to escape it. This is the major theme of the book because through out the novel Miles is always trying to figure a way out of his own personal Labyrinth. From the title I predicted that Miles would have to search for Alaska in some spiritual or emotional way.
Looking for Alaska has many dynamic and round characters and our main character Pudge is the most fleshed out in my opinion. Pudge in the first act is quiet and he just follows around the Colonel and meets his friends. Once Pudge meets Alaska though, this is where his character begins to change, his emotions become more powerful and he starts to harbor romantic feelings towards Alaska but the problem is, Alaska already has a boyfriend named Jake. Alaska and Pudge spend more and more time together as the story progresses and this is when Alaska tells Pudge about the labyrinth of suffering and that if Pudge can tell Alaska the right way to escape this emotional maze, she will find Pudge a girl to have sex with. This is the first major event of Pudge's journey, we can begin to see his intentions and desires. Pudge wants to be with Alaska as a boyfriend and girlfriend. About one third of the way through the book this is where the Colonel says that Pudge is playing a dangerous game because Alaska is the craziest girl in the school and she already has a boyfriend. After Pudge's first few months at Culver Creek he has developed an addiction to ciggarettes which he gets from Alaska and he starts getting drunk with Alaska and the Colonel. This is another change in Pudge's character because he no longer feels guilty for smoking and drinking even though those were the only two things his parents instructed him not to do. After this event we see the rise of emotions from the more static main characters Lara and Takumi. Takumi is becoming a slightly bigger part of the group and helping more and more with everyone's shenanigans of getting drunk and pranking. Lara wasn't introduced until a third of the waythrough the book, but Lara's character is that of a sweet, compassionate foreign student from Romania and she quickly becomes friends with Alaska and Pudge's new girlfriend. Just before the half way point the group decides to pull a prank on the dean of the school known by the students as "The Eagle". The prank is simple, distract the Eagle by lighting off firecrackers in the woods and luring him away from the dorms. And then while the Eagle is distracted sneak into the dorm room of a rich kid named Kevin who had previously pranced Pudge and the gang and put blue dye in his hair gel. The prank worked and Kevin asked the gang for a truce to which the Colonel refused. This is only a minor subplot however, a few nights later after Pudge got intimate with Lara, Pudge and the Colonel walk over to Alaska's dorm room for a night of drinking. This is the most important event in the book for it is the major turning point. After the Colonel and Alaska get drunk, the still sober Pudge kisses Alaska. Immediatly Pudge has an emotional split, he just kissed the girl of his dreams but he already has a girlfriend, Laara. Later that night though Alaska makes a phone call and then wakes up the Colonel and Pudge telling she has to escape and asks them to distract the Eagle while she drives away. The next day, the Eagle calls an assembly where every student attends. The Eagle informs everyone of terrible news. "Alaska has passed away" (page 139). After this tragedy we see our characters embark on a spiritual journey to find out what happened to Alaska the night she died in the car accident and how they can find peace.
Here is an excerpt from my favorite part of the book: "Well, Now it's war." The Colonel shouted the next morning. I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock: 7:52. My first Culver Creek class, French started in 18 minutes. I blinked a couple times and looked up at the Colonel, who was standing between the couch and the coffee table, holding his well-worn, once white tennis shoes by the laces. For a long time he stared at me, and I stared at him. And then, almost in slow motion, a grin crept across the Colonel's face. "I've got to hand it to them" (Kevin and his friends) he said finally "that was pretty clever" "what?" I asked. "Last night before they woke you up, I guess-they pissed in my shoes" "Are you sure?" I said, trying not to laugh. "Do you care to smell?" He asked... Page 29.
This is my favorite excerpt as this is when I began to be personally hooked by the novel, the way that John Green can portray the conversation and make it feel normal is amazing. The humor is what made me like this book so much but the story which is fantastic is what kept me going. The context of this paragraph is the morning after Pudge was thrown into a lake on campus by Kevin for being roommates with the Colonel. The reason behind this is later revealed as one of the greatest plot twists in the book.
Of all of the choices on the Micheal L Printz list, I chose Looking for Alaska because of a few different reasons. First, my Brother recommended the book as he previously read it and said that I would enjoy it. My second reason is that I know the author, although not personally I have seen many of John Green's educational videos on his Youtube Channel: CrashCourse. And my third reason for reading this book is that when I read the summary for it at Barnes & Noble, it sounded very interesting and I knew that I would enjoy because I could relate to Pudge. Especially after I read the book I could se a little bit of myself in Pudge. I would specifically recommend this book to other teenagers in highschool who are looking for a quick read with an amazing and memorable story with a humorous cast of characters. I would officiallly rate this book with a 9/10 and I plan to read it again in the future, it was that god of a read.
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