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201 reviews by:
rebeisstrange
(*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
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
another typical kasie west book. definitely the best kasie west book i've read by far, but still a very basic and very wattpad-esque book. i don't feel like writing a full fledged review right now so enjoy this piece of crap.
*(overall rating is 4.0)
to be honest, when i read the prologue for this book and the last sentence was, "the boy i love", i found myself internally groaning. i had just finished up a romance and was in the mood for some fantasy (which is a rare occurrence), so imagine my surprise when i read that (also, not to mention that fantasy usually has the shittiest romances). but, elizabeth lim surprised me with her writing in the best way possible.
lets start with the writing: absolutely gorgeous. i adore the detailed and descriptive way that elizabeth lim weaved middle eastern and east asian culture into the story. you could tell that she enjoyed it a ton. the stories and lingo and even the description of the food and clothing that everyone wore was great.
the characters were all so well-written. i loved maia with a burning passion--she was sassy yet sweet and i feel like she kept her character consistent while also developing her throughout the story. baba and keton (even finlei and her other brother who, at the moment, i can't remember his name) were all such great and well written characters. i loved edan more than i would have expected.
what i do want to day is, i disliked how elizabeth lim wrote some of the "villain" characters, because it's so clear that she wrote them to be villains. lady sarnai and the emperor had no purpose aside from being villains, so they were written as overly cold and "power-hungry" characters.
i will say, though, i was pleasantly surprised with the romance. i was really dreading having to read some annoying romance in a high fantasy book, but i feel like it was a very likeable romance, with loads of chemistry, and it didn't make the characters stray away from the storyline/their quest.
all in all, a very good book. not sure if i'll read the second one, but only time will tell!
-rebe
to be honest, when i read the prologue for this book and the last sentence was, "the boy i love", i found myself internally groaning. i had just finished up a romance and was in the mood for some fantasy (which is a rare occurrence), so imagine my surprise when i read that (also, not to mention that fantasy usually has the shittiest romances). but, elizabeth lim surprised me with her writing in the best way possible.
lets start with the writing: absolutely gorgeous. i adore the detailed and descriptive way that elizabeth lim weaved middle eastern and east asian culture into the story. you could tell that she enjoyed it a ton. the stories and lingo and even the description of the food and clothing that everyone wore was great.
the characters were all so well-written. i loved maia with a burning passion--she was sassy yet sweet and i feel like she kept her character consistent while also developing her throughout the story. baba and keton (even finlei and her other brother who, at the moment, i can't remember his name) were all such great and well written characters. i loved edan more than i would have expected.
what i do want to day is, i disliked how elizabeth lim wrote some of the "villain" characters, because it's so clear that she wrote them to be villains. lady sarnai and the emperor had no purpose aside from being villains, so they were written as overly cold and "power-hungry" characters.
i will say, though, i was pleasantly surprised with the romance. i was really dreading having to read some annoying romance in a high fantasy book, but i feel like it was a very likeable romance, with loads of chemistry, and it didn't make the characters stray away from the storyline/their quest.
all in all, a very good book. not sure if i'll read the second one, but only time will tell!
-rebe
*3.5
as someone who dislikes Lana Del Rey, i have to admit that her songwriting and her poetry is really good. i think it was a really beautiful and flowery poetry collection, but some of the poems just didn't make sense. overall it was a good poetry book, read it if you want, but it's not the best one i've ever read.
as someone who dislikes Lana Del Rey, i have to admit that her songwriting and her poetry is really good. i think it was a really beautiful and flowery poetry collection, but some of the poems just didn't make sense. overall it was a good poetry book, read it if you want, but it's not the best one i've ever read.
read this for a school assignment, obviously a solid three. i'm just adding it to up my goal haha.
(*rating is a 3.0)
i'm just gonna say it right now: i didn't cry. not a single tear was shed nor built up in my average brown eyeballs. they were dry as the saharah desert.
now, getting into a quick backstory. i bought this book maybe a year ago, before it was really hyped up on all platforms of the internet. i saw (i think) jesse the reader talking about it on youtube and i decided to pick it up. i'm always looking for lgbtq+ books, and this seemed like a nice one.
it stayed sitting on my shelf for quite a while before i started seeing it everywhere on tiktok. and by everywhere, i mean EVERYWHERE. people on that app (take this as a sign to never listen to book-tok) hype up the right books for all the wrong reasons. we'll get into that later, though.
everyone on booktok was just babbling about how sad and how heartfelt the story was. all they would say is that 1) it's sad and 2) it makes you cry. they got me excited to read a sad, hopeless love story between two dying guys.
but what i ended up reading was a goofy, bittersweet story about two people becoming friends in one day. i think if people on the app would've focused more on the adventure or on the character building or on literally anything other than how "sad" it was i think i would've liked it more.
i went into the book with way too high expectations that were let down, like, 100 pages into the book. i wanted a sad book, i wanted to cry, i wanted to feel bad, but i didn't. the romance felt forced and i almost wished that mateo and rufus were long-time friends with unrequited-not-so-unrequited love that they only realized on their last day alive.
i don't know. there were so many little things that factored into me being disappointed by this book. it's definitely a solid book, if you wanna read it go for it, but it just wasn't for me.
as a quick psa for everyone on tiktok: if you're going to recommend an lgbtq+ book, stop recommending They Both Die at the End, Red White and Royal Blue, and the Song of Achilles. we've heard that before. there are a MILLION OTHER LGBTQ+ BOOKS THAT ARE NOT JUST MLM THAT WE HAVEN'T SEEN BEFORE.
anyway thanks for reading this review. bye.
i'm just gonna say it right now: i didn't cry. not a single tear was shed nor built up in my average brown eyeballs. they were dry as the saharah desert.
now, getting into a quick backstory. i bought this book maybe a year ago, before it was really hyped up on all platforms of the internet. i saw (i think) jesse the reader talking about it on youtube and i decided to pick it up. i'm always looking for lgbtq+ books, and this seemed like a nice one.
it stayed sitting on my shelf for quite a while before i started seeing it everywhere on tiktok. and by everywhere, i mean EVERYWHERE. people on that app (take this as a sign to never listen to book-tok) hype up the right books for all the wrong reasons. we'll get into that later, though.
everyone on booktok was just babbling about how sad and how heartfelt the story was. all they would say is that 1) it's sad and 2) it makes you cry. they got me excited to read a sad, hopeless love story between two dying guys.
but what i ended up reading was a goofy, bittersweet story about two people becoming friends in one day. i think if people on the app would've focused more on the adventure or on the character building or on literally anything other than how "sad" it was i think i would've liked it more.
i went into the book with way too high expectations that were let down, like, 100 pages into the book. i wanted a sad book, i wanted to cry, i wanted to feel bad, but i didn't. the romance felt forced and i almost wished that mateo and rufus were long-time friends with unrequited-not-so-unrequited love that they only realized on their last day alive.
i don't know. there were so many little things that factored into me being disappointed by this book. it's definitely a solid book, if you wanna read it go for it, but it just wasn't for me.
as a quick psa for everyone on tiktok: if you're going to recommend an lgbtq+ book, stop recommending They Both Die at the End, Red White and Royal Blue, and the Song of Achilles. we've heard that before. there are a MILLION OTHER LGBTQ+ BOOKS THAT ARE NOT JUST MLM THAT WE HAVEN'T SEEN BEFORE.
anyway thanks for reading this review. bye.