(*my overall rating is a 3.0)

looking for alaska reminds me of a movie with a bad plot, bad characters, and bad development but it seems to be made up with one of the best endings you'll ever see in your life and some philosophical dialogue.

i was already wary when going into the story. i'd heard just about 100 book youtubers say something along the lines of, "i liked it a lot when i was in middle school but now that i'm re-reading it i'm not a fan." it appears that as you get older the story becomes more...meaningless? bad? i don't know. i don't want to sound pretentious, but i do think that i have a more...adult kind of taste, so i was going into this with very little expectations.

i was ready to come out of this book with a one star rating in mind and a lot of bad things to say about it but, surprisingly, i actually kind of liked it.

well, more like i enjoyed about half of it.

the book is split into two parts; the before and the after. the before follows miles as he goes off to a new boarding school to make his life better(?). then the after which follows miles after (spoilers!) his beloved crush dakota dies in a tragic car accident.

i'm just gonna say it now, the before part is the equivalent to crying in a dumpster while a homeless man curses your entire family and the after part is the equivalent to reading a book that is posed as the bible, and you almost believed it.

now, i'll explain myself in a second, but before i do, i want to say this: this was my first john green book and to be honest, it has convinced me that maybe his other books aren't that bad.

the before section of the book is filled with underage smoking, drinking, and sexual scenes that kind of made me want to throw up. the characters were clearly written as misunderstood kids whose only solace was smoking as many drugs as possible. dakota drank as if she had just gotten divorced with her husband of one year, and god if i can even remember anyone other than miles, dakota, and the colonel.

the sexual parts of the book, while keeping it mild and short, each and every scene was unnecessarily awkward and, quite frankly, literally embarrassing to read. the before part of the book is aggravating to read. dakota is such a pick-me girl it hurts and you can clearly tell that miles is being gaslighted into believing that this group of people are the cool ones, when in reality they're future high-school has-beens just waiting to happen.

the after part is beautiful because it has such wonderful writing, it shows how miles is torn apart on the inside and the outside because of a love that really never was. in the after part, it shows miles slowly coming to the conclusion that yes, he was being gaslighted and manipulated by his friends.

all in all, i wouldn't necessarily recommend the book. if you want to read it, go for it. if you don't want to read it, leave it on the shelf and opt to read something better--and maybe longer (another criticsm, the book was way too short).

this has been another shitty review. hope you enjoy this extremely late review.

- rebe