Alaskan Smoke

By Aby H.

John Green never fails to impress readers with his novels. He's written at least 9 books, consisting of The Fault In Our Stars, Will Grayson Will Grayson, An Abundance of Katherines, and each one is seemingly better than the last. However, Looking For Alaska is one of his most captivating pieces. It's a beautiful work of realistic fiction that manages to get your heart racing, make tears come out of your eyes, and make you laugh within its 221 pages.

This story is told through the eyes of Miles "Pudge" Halter. He's a 15 year old boy that's trying to navigate his way through life. He ends up going to a boarding school by the name of Culver Creek, and this is where the story really starts up. At Culver Creek we meet the characters who are going to be the most important people in Pudge's life. Their names are Colonel and Alaska. With the help of both of them, Pudge starts to find out more and more about who he is, and develops more of a personality, as well as an addiction to cigarettes.

Culver Creek is a lot like a college. Everyone dorms there, and although all of the students are high school age, they all drink and party as if they just turned 21. This makes for interesting moments within the already interesting overall story. As the three friends start to bond more and become closer to each other, the things they do only manage to get crazier and crazier until it all crashes.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this story at first. It started off very slow and I wasn't sure where it was going to go. The main character seemed very bleak at first, and since it was all told from his perspective, the beginning seemed bland. After it started to pick up a bit and after I felt like Pudge had developed more of a personality, this novel became much easier to read.

One thing that I found really cool about Looking For Alaska is the way it was broken up. It started off with the first heading of "one hundred thirty-six days before." For a long time, the reader is left wondering what this countdown is for. Even at the beginning of the "one day before" entry, you still have no idea what's about to come. It's not until the last page from this entry that the reader finally has an idea of what's going to come, and during the "the day after" entry, John Green somehow manages to rip your heart out and keep it out of your chest all the way until the last "one hundred thirty-six days after" entry.

Sometimes there was parts of this book that were so intriguing, it was hard to take my time and read every word at a normal pace because I wanted to immediately know what was going to happen next. John Green did a great job at recognizing this, and he would create a long sentence that was easy to read quickly because there wasn't many commas or periods in the parts that were interesting. You would think that this would make the book seem messy or have a negative impact on the story, but it actually did the exact opposite. It added the excitement that was meant to be felt during that moment, and I appreciate the fact that John Green took that aspect of the readers' emotions into consideration when constructing his sentences.

Everything about this book was beautiful, from the message behind it, the storyline, and the way it was written. The only thing that might be a setback for readers is the slow beginning. However, if you can get past that, as you turn the pages it will be quickly forgotten that this story started off slow. If you're looking for an easily enjoyable novel, go pick up Looking For Alaska by John Green at your local bookstore.