• LOOKING FOR ALASKA
• by John Green
• [rated by pbs readers as #92]
• 221 pages

I came upon John Green and this book circuitously. I have no idea how his second book, The Fault is In Our Stars, came to be in my hands. The movie wasn’t made yet and I must have gotten ahold of it a long time back cuz I took a long time to get to it. Make no mistake. I have found some of my best reads that way – buy them for no reason and then just sit on them! It’s a talent I have.

But eventually I opened up the book and a hurricane slipped out! I was dazzled by the force of nature that I found in Green’s writing, storytelling and hugely refreshing dialogue. A masterpiece lay in this small package of a book.

I have to also add that my hat is always off to adults who can find the pacing and the words of youth. Green’s Fault and Meyer’s Twilight have both blown me away with their ability to take me back to high school and thereabouts. I certainly remember living through it but never memorialized it. That is a special talent.

So with a list packed with huge books left to go, I looked at this little book, Looking for Alaska, Green’s first opus, as a little treat to give myself at some point.

Halfway through it, I must say that I am a little bit disappointed. Where Fault is packed with life, as two kids with illnesses contemplate love, life, writing, living, dying, this is, so far at least, about a small group of nerdy friends that hang out at college together, spearheaded by Alaska, the most beautiful girl any of them know. The lead character is in love with her and in service to her as a friend for years, even though she has a boyfriend.

Like I said, I’m halfway done and I hope I’ll change my mind, but so far, this feels like the warm up to Fault. The dialogue is good, but not as good. The life and death angle adds a gravitas to the gaiety in Fault, something that this book has nothing like. And truth be told, I’m bored with the beautiful girl dragging the nerds around angle of things!

DONE.

Wow. For people who have read this book, I wrote all the words above the split second before the book radically changes. Since I can’t imagine I’m ruining it for anybody, I will say that very abruptly someone dies and the second half of the book is dealing with that.

It is a sharp departure and meant to be, but I confess that I found the change weird. If that had happened earlier, I think I would have gotten it. Sure, the set up was just that. A set up to the main course. Or corpse, as it were.

Or if it had happened later, it would have been a book about something else. But half and half? I really can’t remember a book changing that radically – half. way. through.

In the end, you return to John Green and his almost mystical connection to younger minds. This is a book that perhaps people newer to the planet than myself can really synch up with. I can’t imagine adults calling this a stupendous read. Although I’m already wrong because it was adults who picked this.

Adults who read it in their teens, that is.

I didn’t hate this. I love Green’s dialogue. But it didn’t land right for me. I can’t imagine 100 grown ass people reading this and loving it. A discussion group for this book with them would dry up. I’m in the dry up group.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Since it is aimed for teens and teen suicide is sharply on the rise, I also wonder if this book glamorizes suicide at all. It might not. But if you are that age and you love these characters, might you decide that it is okay to take that step? Hope not.