Book Recommendation: Looking for Alaska by John Green

One of my favorite book genres is realistic fiction. This might be one of the reasons I enjoyed John Green’s Looking for Alaska so much. I think maybe I loved it because it is so well written and the dialogue and characters are very believable.

Our story begins as high school junior Miles Halter is leaving for Culver Creek Creek boarding school in Alabama. He has spent 9^th and 10^th grade at a public school in Florida where he lives but decides to go to Culver Creek for two reasons.

Reason #1: His father went there.

Reason #2: As he tells his parents the day before he leaves, “So I don’t have to wait until I die to seek the Great Perhaps.”

The tone for the book has been established. On his first day at Culver Creek Miles gets his first nickname, gets thrown into the pond, and meets Alaska, the most interesting girl he has ever met. Throughout that fall he makes good friends for the first time in his life and begins to see what it is like to really live life. He also falls in love with Alaska, despite the fact that she has a boyfriend.

Then on January 10^th tragedy strikes and changes Miles’s world forever. What happened to Alaska and how will Miles deal with it? Find out by reading Looking For Alaska.

Final Note: This book has been compared to Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I would say to readers, read them both and see what you think. I liked this book better than Thirteen Reasons Why because I thought the characters were better drawn and more likable, but I would be interested to know about what you think.

-Katie at CCL

Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

How heartbreaking it is to be Clay Jensen. Clay, a junior in high school, comes home from school one day to find a package addressed to him propped up against the front steps. Inside are 13 cassette tapes each marked with their own number. Clay cannot believe it when he pops one into the old stereo in the garage and he hears the voice of his dead classmate Hannah Baker. Hannah was his crush and his maybe first love. She also committed suicide two weeks prior to this day. The package also contains a map of the town that Clay follows as he walks around town experiencing Hannah’s story. In Hannah’s own voice she tells about the events and people that contributed to her up to her decision to end her life.

Thirteen Reasons Why captures the way people really talk, and to some extent, the way people behave in high school. While I found some parts near the end of the story to be overly dramatic, I found this to be a really thought provoking book. If you do decide to read it I highly encourage you to have a discussion with a friend or an adult you trust about suicide.