Book Review: “Looking for Alaska” by John Green

Oct 1

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of Looking for Alaska by John Green, identified by the American Library Association as a “frequently challenged” book in the United States.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Fiction bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Miles “Pudge” Halter’s teenage life is divided into two parts: Before and After the month of January in his junior year of high school. Before that January, Pudge went from a boring, uneventful, and seemingly friendless life in a Florida public school to having a vibrant, fast-paced, and fun group of friends at the Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. And among his new friend group, no one captures his attention more than the beautiful, fascinating, and complex Alaska Young. After that January, Pudge and his friends are left to make sense of something they never could have imagined happening.

Important Trigger Warning for Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska features discussions of suicide and discussions of possible warning signs of suicide. These discussions are essential to the plot. If these are discussions that can cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

Looking for Alaska also details a consensual sex act between individuals who are under the age of 18. Although consent is acknowledged and agreed upon between the characters engaging in this sex act, reading about underage individuals engaging in consensual sex may make some readers uncomfortable. Although the scene is integral to the protagonist’s personal experiences, the exact details of it are not necessary to the plot. The reader/listener could skip this short scene without missing details integral to the overall story.

Why are books challenged in the United States?

Since 1990, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has been responsible for documenting attempts to ban books in libraries and schools throughout the United States. According to recent data compiled by the OIF, attempts to ban books are shifting from individual parents to groups of like-minded individuals organizing on social media (and other platforms) to challenge books perceived to offend the groups’ values. The OIF states that data compiled on such groups demonstrates “a growing, well-organized, conservative political movement, the goals of which include removing books about race, history, gender identity, sexuality, and reproductive health from America's public and school libraries that do not meet their approval.” In other words, conservative groups in the United States choose to challenge certain published works if those works do not reflect the specific groups’ conservative values.

Why is Looking for Alaska challenged in the United States?

According to the American Library Association, John Green’s Looking for Alaska ranks fourth among the 100 most frequently challenged books in the United States between 2010 and 2019. Looking for Alaska is challenged by conservative-minded groups due to its depictions of coarse language, bullying and hazing, underage drinking and smoking, and explicit sex acts.

My Thoughts on Looking for Alaska: 4 stars

John Green’s Looking for Alaska is a coming of age story about friendship, first time encounters, and coping with loss. The main cast of characters includes Miles “Pudge” Halter, Alaska Young, Chip “the Colonel” Martin, Takumi Hikohito, and Lara Buterskaya, all of whom are between 16 and 18 years-old. The entirety of the story is told from the perspective of an older Pudge in the way an adult talks about a period of time from their teen years. Centering his junior year of high school, the reader follows Pudge from being a loner with seemingly no friends at a public school in Florida to being a member of a tight-knit group of friends at a boarding school in Alabama.

The various activities that Pudge engages in with his boarding school friend group are why many conservative-minded groups in the United States continue to challenge Looking for Alaska. While attending boarding school, Pudge has his first consensual sexual experience with another student. Pudge and the fellow student are the same age and consent is explicitly made clear between the two before the act even begins. The language John Green uses to describe the act (via Pudge’s point of view) comes across as more clinical than graphic, setting a matter-of-fact tone throughout the scene. The way Pudge retells how he and the other character mutually fumble through the sex act comes across as someone giving a comical account of the awkward attempt of their first-time experience with sex.

In addition to discussions and depictions of sexual encounters, Looking for Alaska is often challenged for its use of coarse language as well as depictions of bullying and underage substance abuse. Throughout the book, the characters (who are all older teenagers) repeatedly use a lot of cussing and cursing. I may be biased, but the way this group of 16 and 18 year-olds uses explicit language (e.g. f*ck, sh!t, etc.) is completely believable and unalarming. From my perspective, it seems common that many teens approaching adulthood learn how to use swear words in the their appropriate contexts and just cannot say those words enough.

Regarding depictions of bullying, this is something the story could do without or could have had to a less intense degree. There is a scene after Pudge arrives at Culver Creek Boarding School that depicts an act of bullying so intense that it crosses the line into attempted murder. This is supposed to spur the tension between two different groups/cliques of teens but far overshadows the tension that subsequently follows. In my opinion, John Green could have either dialed down the intensity of this bullying (to match the level of group tension) or could have addressed it later in the book (that way the bullies are held accountable for their actions). As it is now, the level of intensity this particular scene goes to seems unnecessary.

The discrete form of rebellion that many of the teen characters throughout Looking for Alaska commit to is another point of contention for many conservative-minded groups in the United States: underage drinking and smoking. This is a point I go back and forth about. On the one hand, underage substance abuse is actually a very common form of rebellion committed by many teenagers. On the other hand, it is outright illegal and does cause harm and may even result in death. Ultimately, the depictions of underage substance abuse in Looking for Alaska are central to the story and should be seen as something to learn from instead of something to admonish.

All in all, I give Looking for Alaska 4 out of 5 stars. The premise of the story is simple: a kid gains a new group of friends in a new environment, has first-time experiences with members of the friend group, goes through a traumatic experience with the friend group, and must learn to cope with the trauma both as an individual and as a member of the friend group. Pudge and his friends do things that are illegal for their age group like underage drinking and smoking—that were common forms of rebellion for teens up until the early 2000s—but are ultimately central to the point of the story. The book could have also gone with a far less intense scene of bullying. In the end, Looking for Alaska is a heartbreaking coming of age story that I can recommend to others.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Looking for Alaska by John Green.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 27 January 2025