Looking for Alaska...

Ah...Looking for Alaska.

I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend reading this book! John Green crafts this story so well, and it is so worth taking the time to read. In a way, I'm envious of John Green and his ability to create such beautiful characters in such a beautiful story. I wish I had his kind of talent!

Anyway, on to the important stuff of what I have to say...

[SPOILERS throughout this blog! You have been warned!]

I read this for the first time last January, I believe. I got so caught up in it (which I did again my second time through, although most certainly to a lesser extent), I was reading it during meals, when I was supposed to be doing homework, before bed, in the bathtub... I couldn't put it down. It was so, so, so, so GOOD.

And since I'm not ashamed to say it (okay, well, slightly ashamed), I BAWLED MY EYES OUT. I know this book got at least TWO good crying sessions out of it.

And now that that's out on the table, I guess I should explain that I get ridiculously attached to fictional characters, even more so if the book is well-written. I just know a book is really good when it makes me cry, which may seem weird to some people.

Anyway, I DIGRESS.

Second time reading through? Totally different experience.

The first time I was so caught up in the book, that Alaska's death was a total shock, and the other kids' reactions were so sad, and I was so upset that they spent all that time trying to figure out what happened to her, and they were just digging themselves into deeper holes.

The second time, I knew she was dead. I knew that every day counting down was one day closer to her tragic death. I knew her death was because she was rushing to her mother's grave, because of all her pent-up guilt. It was very intriguing to catch all the little clues that led up to her death in the Before section, when they were hidden to me during my first reading.

In class, we mentioned how Miles (very maturely so, I might add) knows that he will forget all the details about Alaska that made her who she was. And it really got me thinking-- the same thing happened to me!

Yes, I remembered that she had died, and I even remembered the reasoning (in a sense) behind her death.

But I had forgotten all the little details that made Alaska so COOL. (And really, she is SO cool! Her character is absolutely amazing, and I'm so impressed that John Green created such a wonderful female character with such a fierce personality.)


For example, I had forgotten that she had 'smoked to die', that she was such a prankster, that she was a tease, despite the fact that 'she loved her boyfriend', that she smelled like vanilla and cigarettes, that she had a giant collection of books waiting for her to read, that she was such a leader, that she was so incredibly intelligent, that she lived so passionately, that Pudge was the last boy she kissed. When I was reading, and I got to remember all those special things, it hit me how much I had forgotten.

However, that was part of the fun of rereading. I got to recall all the vivid details about her and her life and her relationships. ...Maybe that's why I love rereading books so much. It's because I always plow through them so quickly that the characters escape my mind just as quickly (no matter how attached I am to them!).


Gosh, I loved this book. So much.


Ending blog... now.