![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

Author: John Green
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 221
Date read: September, 2012
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
I've been wanting to read this for ages, and finally got around to doing so this week. I had no expectations at all - didn't even know what the story was about - but the title kept popping up everywhere, so I figured it was time I saw what the fuss was all about.
Fortunately I ended up really liking it. It's character-driven more than plot-driven, but the way John Green writes really makes it work. I read it over the course of two days, and found myself thinking about it constantly during the second day. The characters are believable and sympathetic... even when I acted out. And I LOVED Alaska's last prank - that really made me laugh out loud. Especially the Eagle's reaction to it.
"Looking for Alaska" definitely isn't for everybody. I could see people finding it too dull, or too depressing or even too pretentious. But it worked for me :)