Looking for Alaska by John Green

Miles has made up his mind. He's off to boarding school for his Junior year of high school. The same boarding school that his father attended, in fact, in the heart of Alabama. He isn't sure what to expect, but his stellar social life (not), his multitude of girlfriends (yeah right), and his complete lack of real life experience couldn't possibly be any worse than what he'll encounter at Culver Creek. So far his only real talent is for memorizing famous last words...

His roommate Chip is known as The Colonel, and immediately dubs him "Pudge" (so fitting for his human bean pole appearance). It is through The Colonel that Pudge meets Alaska Young. He is smitten at first sight. On his first night at the Creek, he is awoken in the middle of the night for a hazing prank by the "Weekday Warriors." It's his first encounter with the clique that have trust funds, fancy cars, and go home every weekend. Needless to say, they don't get along too well.

The Colonel and Alaska show him the ropes, tell him about "The Eagle" (the headmaster), introduce him to delicious fried Southern delicacies like fried okra, and make him feel like he finally belongs somewhere. For the first time in his life, Pudge has real friends. They do normal high school things: play pranks on each other, wax poetic about the relative merits of bufritos, study for Pre-Calc, sneak alcohol, dodge "The Eagle." He, The Colonel, Alaska, Takumi, and Lara take smoke breaks out at the Hole. They discuss the philosophy of life.

Alaska asks Pudge: "How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?" She is unlike anyone he has ever known; moody and unpredictable, intelligent and girly, tough as nails and just about to burst into tears, all at once. She is a voracious reader, and a huge flirt. Pudge can hardly contain his affection for her, but she can't stop talking about her boyfriend. Instead, he is her friend, and listens to her whine and laugh and shares in her life. Until that day ... the day that changes everything.

None of them will ever be the same, but will they find a way to move on? Green's first novel won the Prinz award, and is just another example of his touching, heartfelt prose. Readers will be both amazed and comforted that he knows a place in you that you thought no one else did, and now it's shared and you don't feel so alone.

"Just like that. From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane," (Green, 2005).

*Library Link*

If you liked this, check out:

Paper Towns by John Green
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Green, John. (2005). Looking for Alaska: A novel. New York: Dutton Children's Books.