Looking for Alaska
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Green was awarded the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award for Looking for Alaska. It is taught in many high school and college curricula and has been published in more than fifteen languages.
If you’ve read the book and are completely prepared for spoilers, visit the Looking for Alaska Questions page for much, much more information on the book.
Awards
Winner, 2006 Michael L. Printz Award
Finalist, 2005 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
2006 Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults
2006 Teens’ Top 10 Award
2006 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
A Booklist Editor’s Choice Pick
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection
Borders Original Voices Selection
Reviews (SPOILER ALERT!)
“Green…has a writer’s voice, so self-assured and honest that one is startled to learn that this novel is his first. The anticipated favorable comparisons to Holden Caufield are richly deserved in this highly recommended addition to young adult literature.”
-VOYA
“Like Phineas in John Knowles’ “A Separate Peace,” Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends.”
-School Library Journal, Starred Review
“The spirit of Holden Caulfield lives on.”
-KLIATT
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…..”But she had a boyfriend”……
I have had this happen to me before. I never noticed it before but my best guy friend was in love with me while I was dating another guy that I thought that I was in love with. I’ve done this multiple times and right when I relized this he dicided that he didn’t love me anymore and thus, I am very lonly.
haha yeah you can’t spell either
Be quiet, squawk. The concept of spelling shouldn’t be used to insult people. It should be used to make sentences clear and fluent. (As said by John Green. Only he used this argument acknowledging grammar; but same goes for spelling.)
I agree with Savannah!
shhhhhhhhhhh sqauwck!
Last time i checked this wasn’t school so she can speel what ever the fuk she wants and not give a damn :)
ooppss spelled spell wrong lol
Sometimes, We all look for something to love and when we find it. We rush. Because we’re so happy that we ”think” we found something that thinks love you. Everybody has feelings. Sometimes, they show. Sometimes, they don’t. But everybody sometimes are un-correct; And their feelings get hurt…. All the time.
-Qu’mia
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE your books. Keep on writing. Oh and if you ever stop writing books I will come to your house and beat you up.
I know right!! He’s a complete genius.
LOOOOOOVVEEEEE Looking for Alaska. It’s a ball full of yes. (:
This is my all time favorite book. Forget Walden, forget Lord of the Flies, forget Harry Potter. My neighbor recommended it to me. I fell madly in love with it. I in turn I passed it to my brother, and I want to read it out loud to my current boyfriend just as Alaska read Cat’s Cradle out loud to Pudge.
I hope it is not made into a movie because I don’t know if I could bear to watch it. The characters are so alive to me that to see people playing them differently from the pictures in my mind would potentially be devastating.
I think this book is a snapshot, a work of art, something I want to pass on. I hope I have teens of my own someday and I can hand it to them and say, “Yes, this is it. This is a picture of growing up. This is a picture of heartbreak and decisions and living with your choices. And enjoying a beautiful, sad, crazy ride.”
In Takumi style:
“This book is fantastic/This book is real/This book got grit like Pudge got appeal/Culver Creek sounds like home sweet homes/Takumi got a hat like a vulpes vulpes.”
Okay, that was pretty lame. But this book… is not. It makes me laugh/It makes me cry/It makes me quote it all the time.
Thank you for writing this book.
-Melany
Nice rap! I finished this book yesterday, and it, too has surpassed Harry Potter and the like as one of my all-time favourite books. I also feel the same about a movie being made. I can’t even bear to watch book trailers, so how could I stand through a feature film?
Harry potter could never compete with anything written by john green!
This is probably my favorite book I’ve ever read. There was so much emotion in every page. I fell in love with the characters. Keep writing, John Green!
Oh how I love this book. My most FAVORITE book. I know I’ll be reading more books in the future but this book just HITS me. :)
i love this book so much. i just read it recently and absolutely loved it. i actually copied out the entire final essay onto a piece of paper and taped it a wall in my room just so i can look at it. honestly the last essay part is so beautiful, it tackles everything. it’s just so gorgeous and rich it makes me believe that there is such a thing as forgiveness and beauty.we are more then matter. it is so true, we are so much more. if you put all of the parts you think you know about someone that doesn’t make someone. people have hearts and brains. that’s the reason they call it a labyrinth, because it is so complicated, one minute you are in a dead end, and the next you think you see the light. love this book so much, so so so much. t
I adore this book. I can’t help but think it changed me in ways I can’t even begin to explain. Thank you so much for writing. Never stop. :)
P.S. I’m currently reading The Fault In Our Stars and I can’t wait to watch as the characters and their lives and personalities unfold before me. It’s so exciting. :D
I just read The Fault In Our Stars and now looking for other books by John Green……. can’t wait to get to the library! Thank you for such a great read… couldn;t put the book down yet I wanted to keep reading.
After a friend recommended this book too me over the summer, I finally read it yesterday. I have rediscovered a passion for reading I hadn’t felt since I was 12. Thank you John Green, thank you.
p.s. This is the best book I have ever read; structure, characters, and the life-lessons, it has the best of the best.
I read this book and i have to say, all the books i read in my life , i never read one like this, it is by far my favorite book, i hope other people get a chance to read this book, because it’s AMAZING, it is truly a well written novel.
okay dude, this book was amazing. to me, finding my most favorite book is impossible (i first thought it was the hunger games, then fallout by ellen hopkins, then looking for alaska (which was beautiful. It was beautiful.) but then i read the fault in our stars, and i couldn’t decide. And i still plan reading all of your books, soooo.) but i just absolutely know my favorite author is you. your books are so observant on the world, and it features so many breathtaking quotes that are so absolutely true that just made me sit there, on the couch, thinking about them for at least 5 minutes. how you look at the world, how its written, its wonderful. I’ve never found a book so true.
Growing up, my parents always pushed me to believe in God simply because that’s what their parents pushed them to believe and so on and so forth. I never really questioned Christianity because I didn’t have a reason to; that was, of course, until a family member passed away. I then thought about life after death and ended up feeling misguided. The more I talked to people the more they told me to believe in their religion because they were so close-minded. The way that John Green describes the subject captivated me. Everything he said were all of the things I thought but was unable to say. He didn’t push a certain religion on you at all. It was just a thought. And that stuck with me
Sono itialiano. E mi sono innamorato di Alaska. Thanks.
I loved this book and im not all that in to reading but this book caught my attention on the first page and i enjoyed every part of your writting
Looking for Alaska was absolutely amazing. Aside from the plot and your beautiful writing, I loved how the book made me think. Please never ever stop writing. Also, would you ever write a sequel Looking for Alaska or The Fault In Our Stars? Again, thank you for inspiring me to write.
You’re biggest fan,
Marissa
My friends are debating on which is better: Looking for Alaska, or Paper Towns… what do you say? By the way, the philosophy actually gives your books a meaning… worth reading.
This book was so amazing, it was so worth the tears. I fell in love with Pudge, Alaska, and The Coronel.
cant wait to read this book better live up to the standards of willgrayson will grayson and thwe fault in our stars.
from
a devoted 11 year old
This book made me feel all of the things. In all my sixteen years, its the best I’ve come across.
this is such a good book I finished it in a day. I must see a movie based on this book
Wow. All I can say is wow. This book made me laugh and cry at the same time. Every one of your books seems to give a heartbreakingly true message. Are you lik your characters? Do you feel that we are all just …going. As a sixth grader it is hard for me to think that.
So all I really want to say is
Thanks
Polly- make sure you go back and read this book a few years from now, and then a few after that, from start to finish. It changes as you get older, and becomes even more awesome (: DFTBA.
I have read and re-read every book in my feeble collection of books (no where near to Alaska’s fantastic display, on account of having a lack of money). However, this composite of papery scraps (that happened to be my nicotine to the John-Green addiction, it’s real, look it up…no wait don’t), is by all the most genius and absorbing of the few. I read, and therefore i am. But i never was, until i read. a read i shall, forever on. Always, okay?
Something kind of strange happened to me that I feel that I should share with some other John Green fans.
Okay, so on page 37 there are two phone numbers, one of them obviously fake (555), the other real. In tv shows and movies, there are sometimes real numbers that you can call and get a prerecorded message relating to the show or movie. So, expecting a message from John Green saying something like “I’m glad you liked my book, check out my website,” I called the number, and after a few rings, someone picked up and said, “Yo Michelle.” So I kind of stammered out “Sorry, wrong number” and hung up.
So I was just wondering why some random woman from Illinois got her number in this book. Also, please tell me I wasn’t the only one this happened to.
AS SOON AS I FIND MY COPY I WILL TRY THIS! :D
Dear Mr. Green,
I know this is probably late and I may never have the chance of you reading this comment of mine but whatever. I’ve read Looking for Alaska two years ago and I fell deeply in love with it. And it wasn’t the normal type of love for books. It was more than that. So much more than that that I couldn’t explain and understand the feeling at the same time.
Good Sir, I also write. I mean, I write and babble on pieces of paper and my mind’s never silent. Writing isn’t just everything to me… it’s every thing to me. It makes up every fibre of my being. It’s the air that I breathe. I know you know what I mean. And I also know that you know and will understand what I mean when I say that – please don’t let this book (Looking for Alaska) be adapted into a film. I know it sounds stupid and selfish and crazy but Sir, please just… don’t.
This book meant a lot to me from the moment I’ve finished reading it until now that I’m already living my own life as a starving artist. Sir, that’s all I ask from you. The book itself is grand and it needs to no film to prove that. Because it is. It really is.
Much Love,
Me
his is a way of writing that is intelligent and makes you think but not in the way you would expect boring books filled with quotes to, although he makes you think even more deeply than these books will. and yet there is always an element of mystery, surprise, hilarity and carefreeness that makes it so perfect.
it’s beautiful, his writing. not many praises can capture it. i cant believe he called The fault in our stars overrated..!!!
I need to tell someone because I’m about to burst, and nerdfighters seemed like the people to tell.
I’ve been best friends with this guy for years, and today he asked to borrow LFA from me. He’s also a nerdfighter but has never read the book. It’s my favorite by John, so I said of course. I’ve highlighted a lot of it, but before I give it to him tomorrow I’ve made a few new marks. Using the number alphabet like in AAOK, I’ve highlighted “I think I love you.” using the countdown days. He probably won’t notice, but…
Yes, this is terribly cliche. Yes, I know no one probably cares. Oh well- DFTBA anyway!
Hope everything works out for you :) DFTBA
Looking for Alaska…
Oh. My. God. Best book I’ve ever read. John Green you are my idol. I love your books so much, and I have the same exact opinion on everything you write about. You are the epitome of perfect. I’m not trying to creep you out or anything, just being honest. Your books seriously changed me, I look at life so different now. (In a good way.) You’re incredibly talented. I’m 13 and I do write, I dabble anyway. Nothing that great, but I love doing it. If you see this, is there any tips you could give me? Thanks for being you!(:
Thank you for this book. Seriously, just…thank you. DFTBA
Usually, I have my nose in a book. If I don’t, I’ve got my nose in a glass of wine. If it’s neither of those, I’m usually talking about or prepping for one of the two. That’s not to say that I don’t do other things, but they’re definitely my favorite pastimes. I have drank a lot of wine, and have read even more books.
I went on the hunt for the book, Looking For Alaska by John Green. At first I thought the book was a typical boy-girl relationship based book. Then as I started into the first chapter I realized it was nothing I thought it’d be about. I don’t usually like books written by men. And that’s not because I’m sexist; but because I like things women write about more. I like to be taken on a journey when I read a story, and I usually catch a ride on the romance train.
Now I caught wind of this book when I was looking for great quotes on the internet. I found a paragraph that stuck with me for just shy of three years(I’m not joking, I am a freak like that; I found the quote October 8th, 2009). I repetitively read this paragraph over the course of the years and to this day, I believe it’s the best paragraph ever seen by my two eyes;
________________
“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.”
________________
If that doesn’t get your panties in a twist like it did mine, don’t worry; this book may still be for you. Because as I said, it was nothing like I expected it. In the absolute best ways. After reading that paragraph, committing the words to my memory for a very long time, I decided to find the book. I was looking for a first edition print of it(STILL LOOKING), because I knew in my heart that it would be a book that I needed on my shelf, and I have a ‘thing’ for first-edition books, when they’re life changing reads. So I still haven’t found the version of the book I’d prefer, but with that paragraph dangling in my brain, day after day, I decided to just buy it at the book store this past weekend. I read it in two days. Not unlike when I first read the Harry Potter books in the fifth grade, I found myself carrying the book with me everywhere I went. I read it in between answering calls(occasionally I dared to read on while I went through the greeting I say every call I get) at work. I read it while I was eating. I read it while I took a bath(skipped the shower so I would have the ability to read it). I read it non stop until I reached the end.
So on top of it being written by a dude, it’s also based around a dude, Miles. And for any lovers of books about relationships, you know things can get a bit weird if you’re reading suddenly through a boys thoughts. But the book is so greatly written, that it held every fiber of my attention until the end..
I feel like it’s the most well written book I’ve had the privilege to read. I understand why they have kids read it in school(glad I didn’t because it made me cry a few times), and I understand the awards that have been given to the novel.
I was about to turn around and read the book a second time, right after the first, but I decided to let my sister read it while it simmered in my brain.. Four days ago I decided not to read it that second time. It has crossed my mind every single day since I first opened to the first page, and a few times daily since I finished it. When the biggest thing happens in the book(I refuse to spoil it for you because I hope a few people will see this and read it), I hated it. I hated the turn the book took. It made me mad. My emotions were out of whack and I literally felt angry towards the author, but I turned the page to the next, to the one after that one, and on to the one after that, over and over. As I so strongly hated this book, I in turn realized I love it. And it is in fact a book that I will enjoy reading time and time again.
If I could speak directly to John Green, I would shake his hand and thank him for the beautiful turns he caused my heart to take. I would tell him I don’t think I could have lived my life without reading the before and after of that paragraph. And I’d sure as hell buy that guy a beer.
He made it so easy to connect to the characters. Made me feel as though I was a friend to the ones he wrote about. And my hope, is that I can get at least one person to read the book, and to be a little like Alaska.
SPOILERS
I am reading Looking For Alaska. I just got to the part after the prank where they are in the barn playing Best Day/Worst Day. I started balling when Alaska tells the story of her mother dying of an aneurysm. When I was 12 three hours after dropping my brothers and I at my father’s house my mom suffered from severe migraine and called her boyfriend( now they are married down in Texas). soon after getting to the hospital she also suffered from a brain aneurysm. Luckily they got to her in time and saved her but when me and my brothers got to visit her in the hospital I was so scared. I am so very thankful that she survived. I don’t know what else to say.
My mom being the amazing person she is now celebrates that day as the first day of the rest of her life. Every year on march 3rd we get together to eat and have a good time. so yeah…
Incredibly beautiful. One of my favorite books. <3
This book was beautifully written and amazingly inspiring, along with its achingly true twist on philosophy. Pudge’s monologue in the letter he leaves at the end sums up anything and everything I’ve ever wondered about forgiveness and/or death. I can completely relate to Alaska and I think that is what makes reading about her character so intoxicating and compelling. I love this book. I could read it a million times and never grow tired of it.
This book is too good, too relevant. It made me smile, laugh, frown and (almost) cry. Getting attached to the characters is inevitable. I finished the book in less than 24 hours, and for a non-book worm like me, that’s has got to be a personal record. It only means that it was that good. Seriously, this book really changed me. Thank you, John Green.
That* has got to be a personal record. Sorry for the typo. Lol, I got carried away with my feelings.
Looking For Alaska is by far my favorite book by you and just in general, I even recommended it to my English teacher. I cried twice while reading it and I laughed too, the book was over all brilliant. Much love, thank you for the great read.
John Green I just wanted to say thank you, for everything. I know I’m just another fan of your novels, but you truly did inspire me. I’ve read all of your books, including Let it Snow. I’ve cried in every single one of them, though I cry at pretty much everything. :)
My favorite book, if I had to pick, would probably be The Fault in Our Stars. I just adore the book so much, it was so inspirational it really did change my life. My dad had Lung Cancer, and he died when I was five years old. I really do hope I have a relationship in the future like Hazel’s and Agustus’s or Margo Roth Spiegelman and Quentin Jacobsen. Or even Alaska and Miles. I love the name Alaska, I might name my daughter Alaska(:
Like I was saying though, thank you John Green.
I hope I get to meet you, it would be an honor. Can’t wait for the next book!
-Whitley Elayne
I’m naming my daughter Alaska because of this book. Thank you for being amazing, John Green.
I haven’t finished the book yet, but so far its been such a good book!! I saw a quote from this book on my bestfriends laptop and decided to check it out because the quote was sooo cute. The book so far is captivating and it pulls you into the pranks that they pull at school. The way that this book is written is marvelous. Thank you John Green for writting this exceptional book. (I’m at the part where their going to pull the Alaska Memorial Prank, still have to finish and find out why she did it…)
I honestly can’t say I’m sure why I’m leaving this comment, but this book meant more to me than anyone or anything I’ve experienced before. I basically read the book immediately after living it; I was stuck between an incorrigible boyfriend and a best friend that couldn’t resemble Pudge more. Both relationships collapsed with both the boyfriend and the best friend and I found myself in a suicide attempt. After that I turned to reading endless amounts of books to escape my own thoughts, which led me directly into reading this book, which was an eerie mirror of my story.
I sincerely wish I could tell Alaska to keep going at her Life’s Library. She may have just found a version of herself that she felt like saving and preserving.
And Mr. Green, I know you’ll never see this, but I just want to say thank you; thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart for showing me that for every life there is a distinct before and after; that what may be a trivial event to one can be a turning point to another. Thank you so much, this book has changed the way I will forever look at life.
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