Plot SummaryMiles Halter, teenage boy, is obsessed with Last Words. Not people, not the story; just last words. He leaves for Culver Creek high school in alabama, hoping to find some sort of "Great Perhaps" (Francois Rabelais, poet). With "the Colonel" as his roommate and the gorgeous, funny, and mysteriously dark Alaska across the hall, he expiriences the beautiful unstability of unsafety and being young. As Alaska captivates him, he discovers a side to her he can't seem to grasp; a side of calamity and catastrophe. ReviewI want to start off by saying, this is by far one of Green's best works. It blends the careful, but risky love that captured us in The Fault In Our Stars and the clever humor of Paper Towns in one book.
There is not one character that is flat or undynamic. Every character helps to round out the next, and no character has a hint of cliche. The crisp, clever, and hilarious dialogue and persona all of them contain keeps you turning the pages in even the calmer moments. As far as plot, it is never boring. It lacks the commonplace and seen-before outline of most romance novels, something Green is good at. The twists and turns and frustrations of the story turn something that could be a simple, tragic love story into something beautifully messy and confusingly cohesive. My only (tiny) complaint is the unreality of the so-called "Eagle". The "Eagle" is the head of Culver Creek, and he allows the kids to get away with almost anything. Of course, this is needed to help along the plot, but this could have been better handled. Overall, this novel is a great and unique representation of many things we all look for in a great novel: plot twists, love, tragedy, humor, cleverness, and a bit of darkness. There has never been anything like the quick-wittedness and sharp intimacy of Looking for Alaska.
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