| Looking for Alaska | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 93 reviews)
Sales Rank: 11018
Category: Book
Author: John Green
Publisher: Puffin
Studio: Puffin
Manufacturer: Puffin
Label: Puffin
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reissue
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 4.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 014241221X
EAN: 9780142412213
ASIN: 014241221X
Publication Date: August 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Before. Miles ?Pudge? Halter?s whole life has been one big non-event. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-butboring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into a new life, and steals his heart. After. Nothing is ever the same. The Printz Award?winning modern classic is now available in the successful Premium Edition format with a bonus reading guide and a letter from John Green.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 88 more reviews...
 A brilliant novel. January 3, 2009
Thing I Liked Best About The Book: The relationship between the characters.
The relationship between all the characters were written so uniquely. Miles didn't act the same to every other character - the relationships between Miles and his classmates, parents, and teachers were all unique depending on what person you looked at.
Thing I Liked Least: Skipping of Weeks.
When I read, I don't really like it when books skip lots of days at one time. I can see how you would need to skip a few days so your story doesn't drag, but I didn't like how Looking for Alaska would skip weeks at a time. I understand why the author had to do it, but I still didn't like it.
Another thing I liked about Looking for Alaska was after a main character died (I'm not telling who!) the students at Culver Creek handled it like I would think a real school would. The reactions and how they were written made it feel like I was at the school, they were that real.
Basically, this book was really good. I plan on reading more John Green soon.
 Alaska is a great place! December 18, 2008
John Green really knows how to write a well-crafted, funny, entertaining, enlightening, schooled story.
Have I gotten all the adjectives down? "Alaska" was all of the above. It brought more to the table than I expected. Having read another of his books, "An Abundance of Katherines", I knew that "Alaska" was going to have many laughs, and many insights. It did not disappoint.
I totally picked up this book on a whim. I had never, previously, read any John Green books, and bought it based on cover art and "a look inside" alone. I bought both "Looking for Alaska" and "An Abundance of Katherines" at the same time. I read both within one week. This is an accomplishment for me, because I lead a very very busy life!
It was totally worth the time and energy drain. I even spent some time outside in the FREEZING cold in order to get some peace and quiet in my house!
It is not necessarily a Young Adult book. I can relate to it, and am not a teenager. "Alaska" brings you back to the times that you did such things like smoke, drink, tell stories under the stars, play pranks on teachers and adults, and experienced your first grope. Even the good people have had their first gropes at some point! I think everyone can read this book and be entertained, regardless of your age.
It is almost timeless.
Easily one of the best books I've ever read December 8, 2008
Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. This book is absolutely wonderful. It makes you think, and all of the emotions and thoughts that it cleverly provokes are so bittersweet- I will definitley be reading this book quite a few more times. It's a must-read.
5 stars December 1, 2008
'Looking For Alaska' is by far the best book that I have ever read. It is very well put together and is very entertaining. I read it without putting it down once.
Moving, thoughtful and worthwhile, despite its flaws November 29, 2008
Miles Halter is sixteen years old, and in his first year away at Culver Creek, a boarding school in central Alabama. A lot of what happens to Miles as he adjusts to dorm life feels very real -- it reminds me of my first year away at college. Intense friendships form, conflicts simmer, and things that seem small to adults seem so important in the moment to these newly independent teens.
Miles and his friends are by turns funny, introspective and overwrought, which is to say that they are like real people. This is not a cleaned-up wonderland -- our characters smoke, drink and explore their sexuality -- and this makes Looking for Alaska all the more believable, even if it makes some adult readers squirm. Miles feels like a real kid, and his friends feel like living, breathing human beings, not caricatures. This is the core of the book and what makes the first part so successful.
Yes, Looking for Alaska is divided into two parts: before and after. I won't give away the event that serves as a pivot point here, but it's a powerful moment and it gives us a window on Miles and his friends as they process what has changed. The "after" section of the book is not as good as the "before": it begins with all the power of the pivotal moment, but falters under the weight of some unnecessary repetition as Miles becomes obsessed with figuring out just what happened and grapples with mixed emotions and an urge to rationalize them away. Some of the dialogue in the "after" section tends to sound way too much like prose instead of talk, and threatens to sink Looking for Alaska under its own philosophical weight.
Still, this ship never completely sinks, and I stayed up way too late to spend time with Miles and his friends as they process what has happened in their lives. Our characters' relationships fracture and heal, and there's some beautiful rumination about life, and free choice, and consequences.
This isn't a perfect book, and John Green's writing technically improves in his later works (better dialogue, for one thing) -- but that didn't stop Alaska from being a good read, and my favorite Green book thus far.
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