looking for alaska by john green
as with all my review posts, *spoiler warning*
well well well folks. i am officially finished with my first year of college and my exams. since moving from my small town high school to an ivy league - i can now say that i am a mediocre student - at best. i went from someone who had all A’s during high school to having half of my transcript be B’s and B-. And even so, I still had the best time. I can’t wait to leave my hell hole of a house to go back in June, because I miss the city so much already. (I think it’s something having to do with the sun being out now, because I wanted to go home soooo bad when it got cold - i am not a cold person).
In my scrumptious 16 hour car ride back home, i took up one of my previous pastimes - reading. because I was in the car, I only had the selection of books which i had previously downloaded on my iPad - one of them being Looking for Alaska by John Green.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I reallyyy want to like it. I do. I really do. But for some reason I just can’t. I don’t like how the book is built around the one central point and it happens halfway thru the book.
We never got to see Pudge and Alaska in their moment. There was so much buildup and then suddenly it was gone. And Pudge got super annoying and thank GOD the characters were able to recognize this and tell it to him. However because the story is told from Pudge’s point of view, we have to put up with him.
Pudge is unlikeable. He’s lowkey narcissistic and a pick-me. He thinks that no one wanted to be friends with him in high school because he just wasn’t cool or because he was too skinny. This really bothered me.
Alaska is unlikeable. She’s manipulative, especially toward Pudge. She would get jealous when Pudge would be with Lara, but she wouldn’t want to be with Pudge. And she knew that she could control Pudge.
The only likeable characters were Colonel and the Eagle. I actually really liked the Eagle. And Takumi and Lara but they were so minor that they didn’t even add much to the story.
The story was too short. I feel like John could have expanded the story so much. It ended so abruptly. It felt like we were just finally getting to understand the characters and how they act with one another and then *boom* climax of the story and then its over. that was it. too short and too abrupt of an ending.
the climax didn’t make an sense. the story felt like John knew he wanted Alaska to die, but then wrote the story before he had figured out how. It felt like John didn’t even know how she died either. And i didn’t like this. I don’t like being in the same state of ‘not knowing’ as the author. I like being kept in the dark, if it means that the reveal is coming later on. It never came. I was still left confused. “Yeah but that’s the point, you’re supposed to come to your own conclusion like Pudge and Colonel” Shut up. Just shut up. You sound like you’re trying to justify bad writing. Shut up.
There should have been more buildup to the car crash. And the book would have been better if it was told from both perspectives of both Pudge and Alaska. Because it would be better for the audience to know exactly what was going through Alaska’s head.
The part where she just storms out and has to drive to see her mother at 3 am was so abrupt and stupid too. It made no sense. She would have been too drunk to even remember, which is what they made a point of at first. Also she never would have been able to drive straight. Her committing suicide made NO SENSE. and john made a point of that through the characters’ investigations and THEY EVEN SAID IT MADE NO SENSE FOR HER. this is why there should have been a perspective from alaska. it was just lazy writing in my opinion to have not had that.
i hate this book. i hate this book. it had so much potential and then it felt like john got in a rush at the end and rushed the ending. the buildup was so good and then he just ruined it.
it pains me to give this rating, can someone please make a fan version of the novel that is actually good, im begging.
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