Originally posted on my blog, Books Forget Me Knot.

Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.

John Green’s writing is thoroughly addictive, plunging you into a world full of raw emotion and a realism that hits close to home.

This is my first John Green book EVER and I can see why so many people love and adore his books. John Green’s writing is thoroughly addictive, plunging you into a world full of raw emotion and realism that hits close to home. Green doesn’t sugar coat or sprinkles his words with flowery writing. It’s powerful, a true voice in literature. The story will compel you and stir provocative thoughts, notions that will leave you rendered speechless.

I really enjoyed reading from Miles “Pudge” Halter’s perspective. He was this regular teenage boy, who loves to read biographies and remembers famous last words. He seeks the “Great Perhaps,” which I found was a really good characteristic for Pudge. He wants adventure, foreign land to discover. He finds that at Culver Creek (a private school he decided to go to for the rest of his high school career).

Pudge finds his Great Perhaps with the help of Alaska Young, a carefree and often times unpredictable girl. Pudge instantly finds Alaska Young attractive and falls in love with her in the end. Alaska is impulsive, selfish, and can be a bitch (excuse my language). But Pudge loves her nonetheless. She is the reason why he breaks out of his shell. When a terrible event occurs, nothing is ever the same. Pudge and his friends the Coronal, Takumi, and Lara struggle to surpass it.

I knew going into this book that a main character dies. That is the terrible event. But there is a different knowing something happens and experiencing it. It brought back memories of a friend of mine who died in a car accident my junior year of high school. The feelings in the novel were real. There’s denial, anger, grieving, blame, and finally resolution or acceptance.

It was very hard getting through the After part because it was difficult reading through it without stopping to cry. There were times where I just had to put the book down and breathe. Just breathe.

Even though, it hurt to read After – I found it positively enlightening. I loved how Green had a deeper meaning within the surface of the novel. It was about loss and trying to live with unanswered questions. There’s also a sense of hope, of realizing that there is a way to get out of the labyrinth, a reoccurring motif. Here is where my inner English major-esque self appears. The way to get out is to forgive and to accept. I know it sounds ambiguous, but it makes sense when loss is concerned.

The other thing I really loved about this novel was the characters. Alaska was a bit turbulent, a force to be reckoned with. But I liked her because there are often times in literature where a girl – much less a main female protagonist – is off the rails imperfect and unstable. Her flaws are what I admired and at times I wished that I was like Alaska, taking the plunge and living recklessly. She was very in tune with her emotions, in a way that caused her to uncontrollably break down or fall asleep the next second.

Pudge’s roommate, Chip Martin “Coronal” becomes his best friend. Their relationship, especially after the accident, speaks columns of what it means to have someone there during the dark times. They decide to undergo an investigation of what happened “after.” But after months of not getting any hints, the passion for it begins to fade. Pudge realizes that memories fade, but not because we don’t want them to, because everything that comes together falls apart with time.

There are so many life lessons that I learned and was reminded of while reading Looking For Alaska. Some of the feelings that ensued were not ones that I wanted to relive, but in a way I was very thankful for them. We can’t suppress them, nor can we ignore them. I believe that Looking For Alaska is a great coming of age story full of friendship, laughs, sex, loss, and hope.

I am incredibly excited for tomorrow night where I will hand out copies of Looking For Alaska, for World Book Night. It’s part of the reason why I choose this book and finally settled down to read it. And I don’t regret doing so for one second. Looking For Alaska will stay with me for a very long time and it’s a definite book I recommend to you all.

Memorable quotes:

When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are.

The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.

Thomas Edison's last words were 'It's very beautiful over there'. I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful.

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 a hurricane.

This was just utterly amazing from the very beginning! :)

The reader definitely sees Suze and Jesse's relationship progress from chapter to chapter, and you can't help but completely love it! :D

Originally posted on my blog, Books Forget Me Knot.

I received an ebook copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book with no expectations. Just a clear mind. But, boy did it take me on a very heart-wrenching trip.

When Danielle is left sexually assaulted and beaten, Ryan, her hero, is the one who finds her after. No one understands the ordeal she has grown through, except him and he knows what it will take to have Danielle begin to heal. She writes her journey down, letters to Ryan, and we are taken on her own journey of survival and strength.

At the beginning, I am a little thrown off by the layout of the novel. It was hard to get used to Carly writing in first p.o.v. and then switching to second p.o.v. when she talked to Ryan. I’ve read novels where a point of view was in first and third. But never in first and second, which was a little hectic. But after 7 chapters, it didn’t both me so much. On that note, I really did like Danielle’s writing. It held such emotion that I sympathized for Carly.

For our characters, Carly and Ryan. Well, they are something else. There is a slew of misunderstandings between them. Neither know that they have had a crush on each other for years, their feelings for each other always being misconstrued. I didn’t like this because I’m a terribly hopeless romantic and at times, I just wanted to scream at both of them to get their sh** together.

But then, there was the other part of me liked how Ryan gave her space. Even when she accused Ryan of something that he did not do, he always there for her. Period. I liked that in his character. He was strong and loyal. It’s something that I really like in a MMC (male main character).

Aside from the difficult issues of abuse, there is also the topic of trust. Trust is very hard to garner when something horrible has happened, especially in Carly’s case. There are many instances where Carly distrusts Ryan’s motives, his actions, character, ect. He in turn, is hurt, and thus creates the unending string of misconstrued communication with one another. But love, if it’s true has the power to prevail against all odds and it was one of my favorite messages in this novel.

Overall, this was a really nicely written novel. It had some tough subject matter, but life isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. I liked that it dealt with a tough subject and how the author did not sugar coat it. I definitely recommend this book to everyone. It’s an inspiring story about a girl coming into her strength after dealing with a soul-shattering experience such as what Carly dealt. Strength, even as it slowly emerges in a person, is beautiful and Danielle Sibarium writes it wonderfully!