Wow, wow wow wow. I loved this book so much i listened to it like 5 times!!! I'm 15, and this book hit me hard. I've lost people the way the boys loose Alaska, and never totally healed. this honestly helped. Thank you John, so much.

This book is about Miles a boy who is in search for the great perhaps, and has a fascination with famous last words. He meets Alaska Young who is basically the girl of his dreams. Their journey together at boarding school begins and John takes us on an exciting ride in which you constantly feel there is impending doom lurking ahead. The reader gets a glimpse of what Miles’ home life is like at the beginning of the novel when his mother throws a going-away party for him, and only two people show up. Young adult readers/Teens will find it captivating and thought-provoking, without feeling like they are being preached to, or being told that these are the only answers available. Looking For Alaska is a book I still love and recommend years later, and occasionally still think about. It remains my favourite JG book! Rating 4/5 stars.
- @momo of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library

I'll give my version of the summary of this book first but you can always read the one above.
Basically Miles starts at a new boarding school and immediately becomes friends with his roommate who introduces him to Alaska. He's enamored my Alaska: she's super smart yet into all the wrong things. But he continually feels drawn to her.

My thoughts:
No plot twists (or maybe others might thing it's a plot twist). It is one of my favorite books but I understand why people may not like it. It deals with death differently than most books do. It doesn't offer a solution or a consolation prize. It's so much more realistic. Because the truth is when someone dies we often don't know what happens. I also liked how this book dealt with how friends deal with deaths and how teens were struggling with midlife crises after loosing someone. It talks about a lot of important things and I liked the fact that you don't know everything. Because in life, it's just like that. Sometimes you don't know everything but you have to make peace with it.

I know there are a lot of people love this book, but I couldn't finish it. I couldn't relate to any of the characters and didn't see any redeeming qualities. It also had content that I didn't care to read about and felt that there were better things to do with my time. It was quite disappointing, honestly. John Greene's works usually have a great deal of wit to them. I thought this was missing completely.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is a fan of The Fault in Our Stars. Although, in my opinion it would probably be considered inappropriate for anyone younger than 13, because some of the situations dealt with within the story are very mature. There are many parts in Looking for Alaska that are funny and will make you laugh but also several times that you will probably get emotional and cry. I love John Green and have read several of his novels, and I might consider Looking for Alaska one of my favourites. I give this book a rating of 8.5/10 stars and I would recommend it for anyone 13 or older.
- @bookaholic of the Hamilton Public Library's Teen Review Board

Looking for Alaska by John Green is easily my favourite novel of his. Unlike some of his other novels, which are centered directly around romance and heartbreak, Looking for Alaska takes on the genre of mystery. The novel is structured in a unique and interesting way: the before, and the after. The story follows Miles (Pudge), whose entire life has been uneventful and boring up until the point he is sent to Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life begins to turn upside down upon meeting some very creative and outcasted characters. The most significant one of all is Alaska Young, the clever, funny, beautiful girl he is instantly drawn to.
I loved this novel primarily for its structure and characters. It is structured as ‘before’, where Miles adjusts to his life in his new environment, and the ‘after’, where a huge event happens and suddenly everything he’s come to know comes crumbling down piece by piece. The way this was laid out was new to me and I liked it very much, as it set the past and the future apart. The characters as well were incredibly written. They were all intelligent yet comical, clever yet impulsive. It was thrilling to read as the characters' unpredictability left you wondering how they would react to certain situations.
The book itself was compelling and insightful. It opened a window into the minds of teenagers who have different coping mechanisms in difficult times, which Miles is constantly faced with. Each character, you see firsthand, develops relationships and discovers more about themselves the more the book goes on, which is very enlightening to read and watch progress. The book was a light fast-paced tome, however, and I noticed that the beginning half of the book was much more exciting to read than the second half as well. Generally, it was a great novel with an interesting plot and phenomenal characters.
I would rate this novel a 3.5/5 stars.
- @AllegroReader of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library

The Breakfast Club meets Perks of a Wallflower! I love John Green's writing--this story is a wonderful coming of age tale with well-defined characters you will grow to love. When Miles Halter leaves his hometown in Florida to attend his Father's alma mater, Culver Creek, little does he know who he will meet. There's his room mate, the Colonel, Ticoumi and Lana and the fascinating Alaska Young. Green writes with such warmth and wit. This was a great book to listen to on cd and the reader was wonderful. There will be more John Green books on my 'to read' list!

good book good characters nice plot

This book is amazingly written, hitting all the high notes and bringing the reader in. You will laugh, you will cry, you will love this. I recommend it to everyone.

My personal favourite of the John Green books. DFTBA.