The book that has many reading, and thousands of
copies flying off shelves, Looking For Alaska. I decided to create my
7th blog post dedicated to the hype of Looking For Alaska. With
countless friends recommending it to me, and telling me it's the best book they
have read all year, I knew that I had to pick this book up for myself.
As I started reading I noticed at the beginning
that the plot was very slow and would often find myself going back and reading
paragraphs because I daydreaming about other things. It seemed that they would
just be repeating the same activities; going to school, coming home, hanging in
others room. There would occasionally be interesting parts where they would get
in trouble but it defiantly wasn't the climax. The beginning made me very
disappointed and not what I expected from an author like John Green. I was very
confused as to why my friends would recommend this to me.
Nevertheless the slow beginning I really did
enjoy the structure of the book. I found it very cool how the book started
by saying one hundred and thirty- six days before and ended in one hundred and
thirty- six days after. The counting down leads up to a big event. Every
4 to 5 pages it would count down and then say one hundred and thirty three days
before and start a new section of the book; almost like chapters. I personally
loved this technique and thought it was very nice how it was split up into
smaller sections compared to chapters. I hate reading books that have big
chapters because when I sit down and read I feel like I have to finish those
chapters or else I will forget where I left off. Where as Looking For
Alaska you can read a few sections here and a few there and not worry about
stopping right in the middle.
I feel as if the hype came from the plot, structure
and the overall uniqueness of the book. John Green is a very interesting and
entertaining writer and makes his stories interesting to read. He always is
adding or creating a new technique into his stories to engage the reader. They
are never getting boring and they always seem to be different- unlike all of
Nicholas Sparks book where they all almost follow the same story plot and find
yourself mixing up the stories. Like all of his books, there are great lines
that remind you as to why you picked up the book, Pudge's signature line is a
good example, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." If you've read the book
you know the great meaning of it. Green's books are all very different in
their own way; the characters have different personalities, the settings take
place in different locations, and the problem the characters are facing is
different. And Looking For Alaska differently was one to excel in all
those categories.
In addition, John Green's books have become such a
hype because he writes what teens want to read, and when he does they are very
well written. Looking For Alaska deserves all the awards it gets because of the
important message it help portrays; self-discovery and loss. Looking For Alaska
explains what teenage life is all about, love, stupid things you can do to
impress someone, and what bad things can happen when you go off to
college.
I would 100% recommend this book! At the beginning
I was very iffy and wasn't even sure I could finish it. (Yes, books have to be
very fast pace in order to keep me entertained.) However, I stuck with it and
found the plot very different from anything I had ever read. I will for sure be
recommending this to all my friends, family, and hopefully to anyone reading
this!
In my book 4 I was also to look up reviews on
Looking For Alaska. Below I provided the sites.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99561.Looking_for_Alaska
http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Alaska-John-Green/dp/0142402516
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/looking-for-alaska-john-green/1100255278?ean=9780142402511
https://books.google.com/books/about/Looking_For_Alaska.html?id=gqNh4EbiFh0C&hl=en
