Thursday, September 27, 2012

Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Okay, kids, brace yourselves. I'm officially going to start campaigning to re-name this blog Whiskey Sours & A Book - Any Book Really - By John Green.

Holy majoly. I am so in love with John Green.

I had no idea Looking for Alaska was trending up the charts when it was delivered to my e-reader (yes, I know that actually typing that last statement makes me some sort of YAF hipster. Don't forget your black-rimmed RayBans, friends). In fact, I only decided to read it because the NYPL still does not have The Fault in Our Stars in the Kindle version. I know - ridiculous.

So I downloaded LfA and it was SO. FREAKIN'. GOOD. Is John Green a magician with words or what? Ugh, this book was so wonderful.

Synopsis: 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.
  • Originality: 1 Million - John Green can take the most ordinary circumstances and people and make them so unbelievingly intoxicating you cannot be parted from the story for more than 3 hours at a time
  • Absurdity: 8 - I'm giving the book an 8 due largely in part to the final scene(s), because it's just awesome. Absurdly awesome.
  • Level of Romance: 6 - I don't think that this was particularly romantic as the lead character was a 17-year-old boy with raging hormones, but I also don't think it was ever intended to be
  • Level of Harry Potter-ness: 1 Million and 5 - spot on. If I can't be reading J.K. Rowling, I want to be reading John Green. Master-o-prose, my friends!

9 comments:

  1. I bought this, but have not even READ IT YET. WHAT!?!?! I know. But I did give it to one of our friends and he read it and liked it. Although he did point out that he is 28 and I gave him YA fiction. I told him he was lucky there were no fairies/wizards involved.....

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    1. ReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReadit.

      now.

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    2. Wow... that was obnoxious of me. No regrets.

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    3. By obnoxious do you mean AWESOME? because that is what that comment is, pure aweomse.

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    4. fakesteph, I completely co-sign that post. Read it NOW! :)

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  2. HAHAHA PS. You are NOT a hipster. But I love you anyways.

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    1. If I'm trying not to be a hipster, but am inadvertently being hip ... doesn't that make a me ..hipster?!

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  3. I am crying with happiness that you have found the amazingness of John Green. And Grad Student needs to read it like NOW, because it is awesome. One of my favorite books. By one of my favorite authors. I have it signed. I have all his books signed actually. And I fully support you renaming the blog.

    My favorite quote: I'm not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they're gonna do. I'm just going to do it. Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.

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  4. So my take away is that we should all read it. GS- can I borrow this in Oct?

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Comments? Heck ya!