Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Looking for Alaska by John Green

106 reviews

carina_dreamer's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Sendo isto um livro com personagens no 11° ano num colégio interno que são amantes de partidas e de espírito livre, já não sinti que tinha a idade certa para os adorar. 
Esta é uma leitura essencial para os adolescentes porque os temas que aborda são interessantes e causa reflexão sobre a mortalidade que eles não sentem alcançá-los.
Eu gostei mais da parte do "depois", já tinha identificado os sinais e deitei umas lágrimas, mas não foi um pranto como fiz com outros livros. O "antes" foi um pouco enfadonho para mim, mas a escrita do John Green é fluída e isso é um grande ponto positivo.
Adorei como o autor também começou a estória no dia 136 antes e terminou no 136 depois, é o tipo de planeamento caricato que gosto por parte dos escritores.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

strapmatey's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

after 100 pages i almost stopped reading.
but i like that instead of "real" chapters there are before and after titles

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

in_themoonlight's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

imlaurenshelton's review

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

This book was okay, the plot reminds me of Paper Towns but with more angst and Alaska is a reflection of Peyton from OTH. The book is well written (duh it’s John Green) and can be enjoyable but the teen angst is nearly unbearable, combined with the vulgarity of these teenagers words and actions.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

swiftiesophie's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i hate miles

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hufflepuff96's review

Go to review page

reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

It's just fine. Not my cup of tea.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kenfrommars's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“I go to seek a Great Perhaps”

The theme of the book. The question that hung over the whole 221-page novel about the main character, Miles Halter, trying to find just that.

I won’t sugarcoat it. My journey in reading this book is very mixed. The first half of the novel was hard for me to get through at times. I took some days of not reading it and was considering I might drop it, but there was a point where something about it just hooked me. Was it the mystery of Alaska? Was it me finding myself frustrated with the characters and just wanting to finish it because I had made it so far into it as it was?

Not sure, but there was something about this story that just grabbed me, also. I liked the character of Alaska Young. I liked the main group and the side characters. It was very John Green in the sense of these characters being witty, insightful, simultaneously enlightened and ignorant, and just this overall message of hope.

This book came out when I was in high school, but I didn’t read it until now. I wished I had read it when I was in high school, but with the perspective of both a teenager and an adult who has made his own mistakes, I appreciate the themes of hope. Because we all seek that great perhaps of life. The Great Perhaps that gives us purpose. Some of us don’t find it and some of us find then lose it.

I’ve had my issues with John Green in a number of his books, but I thoroughly enjoyed this and it should be read by everyone at least once. It should be experienced by everyone at least once. It’s thought-provoking and insightful and heartwarming, despite the themes of grief.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

booooookkkksss's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kateyoutka's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is probably the book I've read more than any other book except, maybe, some of the Harry Potter books.

There's a reason I keep coming back to it. I was 14 when this book came out, and I think I was maybe 15 when I first read it. It was the first time I'd seen a book talk about what I now know to be one of John Green's primary messages -- that it's difficult for us to ever really know another person, so it's important that we remember that they're just that -- a person -- and it's worthwhile, necessary, to imagine them complexly. Throughout this book, Miles builds Alaska up into something more than that. He puts her on a manic-pixie-dream-girl pedestal. As she gradually disappoints him, he realizes how flawed his thinking was, and how flawed Alaska herself was, and how flawed all people are. It's an important message whether you're 15 or 32 (as I am now) and it continues to be relevant.

I don't quite understand the negativity this book has received over the years. I see a lot of reviews critiquing Alaska's character since she is a manic pixie dream girl -- but that was kind of the point all along, and I strongly feel that she was written purposely that way. Green shares a similar message in Paper Towns, with the character of Margo being an almost caricatured version of a manic pixie dream girl. Green isn't falling prey to writing a manic pixie dream girl character -- he's poking holes in stories that utilize those characters and demanding that we think more critically about both them and the real-life people we interact with every day.

The messaging in this book surrounding religion and seeking purpose in our lives is also one that I've thought more about as I reread this book at twice the age I was when I initially picked it up. I think I initially thought that this book was extremely depressing when I read it at 15 -- a book about death and grieving and loss -- and at 15, I was thinking a lot about my own Great Perhaps. At 32, I'm thinking more about the fact that the only way out of the labyrinth is through and about always choosing the labyrinth.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

pinksrobin's review

Go to review page

dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was my favorite book growing up, I’ve read it about 3/5 times. It’s captivating! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings