Review of 'Looking for Alaska' by John Green, a story of the Great Perhaps

Review of 'Looking for Alaska' by John Green, a Being a teenager may be one of the most traumatic, amazing, terrible, interesting times in our lives. You start to figure who you want to be. You may go through a goth phase or you may cut your hair like that character in your favorite show. You dress a certain way, talk a certain a way and do your best portray a certain image to the outside world. John Green is notorious for writing about the intense woes of teenagedom, and Looking for Alaska is one that punches you in the gut and then gives you flowers.

Miles is a tall, skinny kid who likes to read biographies, has a fascination with famous last words, and could not possibly care less about most of the world around him. He loves his parents but is an only child and has no real friends, meaning he spends most of his life in his own head. For his junior year of high school, Miles decides to embark on an adventure of his own choosing and enrolls in the boarding school that his father attended.

His roommate immediately names him Pudge, ironic due to Miles’ scrawny frame. Although his name is Chip, he is known as the Colonel, and he will change Pudge’s life forever. Mainly because he introduces Pudge to Alaska, who causes all of the planets to align and the clouds to part for the singing angels. Pudge gets exactly what he came for: something more. It arrives in the guise of booze, cigarettes, friends, secrets and tragedy. Although it was exactly what he wanted, he never saw it coming.

Some people have issues with the over-the-top essence of this book. That essence is the whole point of the story. Miles was searching for his Great Perhaps, and he got more than he bargained for. Even though the whole book is from his point of view, he still seems somewhat of a mystery. He goes along with most everything the Colonel and Alaska say, but it’s not because he’s a coward or a follower. It’s because he’s trying to become the opposite of what he would have been before he came to this school. He’s purposefully acting outside his natural state and letting the chips fall where they may.story of the Great Perhaps,