Breathe To Read

Breathe To Read

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

2016 Book Challenge - Book 7, Looking For Alaska

Book 7 was

Looking for Alaska



This was under the category:  A  Book Less Than 300 Pages

This is a story of Miles (who gets nicknamed Pudge in the book) who goes off to a boarding school in Alabama.  He didn't have much of a social life in high school, and he was glad for the change.  His new roommate Chip (nicknamed "The Colonel) is a super smart, poor boy who loves to prank others.  Alaska, is the beautiful, tortured girl that Miles falls for.  He, Chip and Alaska quickly become friends (along with another guy), and for the first time, Miles has friends he can count on.  Then a tragedy occurs leaves the circle of friends rocked to their core.  They are left in grief and confusion and spend the rest of the school year trying to figure out "Why".

This was a pretty good book.  I loved "A Fault in Our Stars" and how John Green wrote.  So many great lines in that book.  This is his first book, so I didn't hold it to high expectations.  IT was enjoyable, and very short.  It is a Young Adult book, and I did find myself rolling my eyes at some of the things the teenage characters said and did.  The Colonel (Chip) was my favorite character in the book.  He was funny, and had some of the best lines.  Alaska was a bit of a tease and really not that developed of a character as you would expect.  The characters just didn't really act their age.  Sometimes they acted quite a bit older and said things you know no teenager would ever say.  And other times, they were so immature you thought they were more middle school aged.  It was all over the place.

You do know something big is coming from the beginning of the story - you just don't know what it is.  I have to say, when I got there, I was surprised.  Well, when I got NEAR there, I was surprised.  There were a few hints a few pages before, and I had my theory.  But at the beginning (the titles are called "180 days before.....76 days before......") I wasn't sure what was coming.  True love?  Expelled from school?  The author did well keeping it a secret.

I am a little torn.  There were parts I liked, and parts I didn't.  I found myself skipping small parts of the book and thinking "yeah yeah yeah".    If you like John Green, and are looking for a quick read, then give it a try.  It isn't terrible.  And you may find it better than I did.  It did get 4000 reviews on Amazon, and 86% of them were 4 or 5 stars.  So there is that.

Stars:  3 1/2

1 comment:

  1. Poor John Green will spend the rest of his life trying to recapture what he was able to achieve with The Fault in Our Stars.

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