Looking for Alaska
Brief Summary
Looking for Alaska is basically about a kid named Miles (or Pudge) who doesn't really take risks and lives on the safe side, who begins to attend boarding school. At Culver Creek boarding school he meets some new friends who get him into smoking and things he normally wouldn't do. Along the way he ends up falling in love with one of his new friends. Everything in his life changes.
What is it REALLY about?
In my opinion, this book and the events that take place can heavily relate to many teenagers lives. It shows how much one can change and be affected by one event and how much one person can change your life. This book helps readers understand that you can never give up hope. Another thing I got from this book is people like Alaska, who are seemingly invincible, can be totally different when they're alone. Alaska is overcome by all that has happened to her, but she never acts like it or talks much about it. Another thing I noticed was how Pudge decides to cope with (spoiler!!!! oops) Alaska's death. He decides to smoke to cope with it which I thought was a weird way for him to cope because smoking was a thing he usually did with Alaska, you'd think that would make him think about her even more.
The most important word in this book is labyrinth. This word is important because the group of friends begin to use it to talk about everything. They use this word in almost every conversation they have together. Alaska usually uses this word when she is talking about suffering. Everyone uses this word in a different way and I think you kind of have to define if for yourself.
The most important quote in this book also relates to the most important word, which is "How will I get out of this labyrinth?" This is important because even though these words are someone's last words, which Pudge was really interested in, this phrase is seen differently by each character. The whole idea of the labyrinth applies to them and is used by them throughout the rest of the book.
The most important sentence was " I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth." This sentence was important because Pudge was realizing that forgiveness was a big part of moving on but he was unable to tell Takumi that he forgave him before he was gone.
There isn't much I'd feel the need to change about this book but one thing would be how it turned out. I didn't really like how Takumi just left and never really got any closure with anyone. Of course, I don't think anyone ever likes not knowing what really happened to Alaska, but that's how most books end. I would recommend this book to anyone from like 16 to 30 and to people who are interested in seeing characters grow and seeing some meaning behind characters.