Reviews with content warning for Blood - Looking for Alaska

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Looking for Alaska by John Green

13 reviews

kosmos42o's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

bearystarry's review against another edition

2.5

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

John Green has a great talent for writing a poignant ending; this one even made me cry. Unfortunately I found the rest of the book frustrating, as I did with Paper Towns. I do think this book is the more enjoyable for me of the two but they’re very similar in many ways and I will probably not be rereading either.

There’s something frustrating to me about both Margo and Alaska being incredibly tortured and traumatized teenage girls who are also then subjected to being objects of obsession to boring, privileged teenage boys who need an adventure. I know the Point is to highlight how girls are people and not manic pixie dream girl archetype Creatures but. The amount of trauma they seem to be required to hold onto feels… some kind of way to me.

Content Warnings

mandycantsleep's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I remember reading this in middle school and absolutely loving it. So I decided to reread it now, as a 22-year-old, and I cannot say it resulted in the same outcome. I feel like a lot of the book was ... completely unnecessary.
The second half of the book felt super drawn out, I think it could have been wrapped up in just a few chapters. I was listening to the audiobook, so it ended up being 3.5 hours of the second half. Honestly, I started to lose interest after an hour in.
It was fairly obvious to me why Alaska was going out (maybe it was my memory from 10 years ago? Or more likely, just the fact that she talked about her worst day prior (her mom's death), and the date she drove off was around the same time in January.) I was just getting really annoyed at the characters, I felt like screaming through my screen, "SHE WAS GOING TO SEE HER MOM! OBVIOUSLY!" So when they finally figured it out, it wasn't some big conclusion for me.
I also think maybe it was just a bit young for me. While I was definitely too young to be reading this in middle school, I think maybe high school is the best demographic for this book. Overall, it's a really intense story and had me hooked in the first half, but lost me in the second.

Content Warnings

stephliljazz's review against another edition

4.25

emotional reflective sad slow-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

John Green has the saddest imagination of any author I have read. I went into this book knowing something gravely sad happens because that's how the author writes. However, the character build up outside the plot was a lot and I found myself thinking at some points if parts actually had any relevanxe to the plot or outcome. I still really enjoyed it. My favorite thing about this whole book is Miles paper at the end. I feel like if you are grieving his words will help you think deeply about life and loss. I think even if you do not want to read this whole book reading that paper would make you love it anyway. I also have to say Wil Wheaton narrates this book perfectly. He successfully gave voices to each individual character and added emotions to their words in a very meaningful way. His voice was soothing and steady. I would definitely recommend this audiobook.

Content Warnings

kafkatattoo's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

charley_books's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

zoemorana's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-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

Content Warnings

matchababesandbooks's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Very interesting. This was my second John Green book (the first being The Fault in Our Stars), and I’m not totally sure which one I enjoyed more. I don’t mind John Green’s writing, in fact, I think I like it more than most people, but it’s not my absolute favorite. However, it didn’t take away from the story. The characters were likable but a little irritable, as all teenagers are lmao. I’m a sucker for a good boarding school trope, so I already knew I’d at least like this. And I did. Although, I bought this book and was eager to read it because I read reviews and watched videos of people grouping this in with the likes of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Maybe I’m a little biased because Perks is one of my favorite books, but I wouldn’t say Looking for Alaska is on the same level. I think there could’ve been so much more. I understand that a big plot point in the story is that Pudge nor the reader knows all that much about Alaska, but this makes it very hard for me to connect emotionally with the book.

How am I supposed to be utterly devastated when Alaska dies when I don’t even know her? And in regards to her death, almost all of the “After” section just feels really repetitive. It picked up more toward the end, but that’s because Pudge and the Colonel were finally starting to function normally again. I feel like I’m shitting too much. I really did like the book I swear.

While I was a little underwhelmed, I think it’s just a common thing for a book to be immensely overhyped on social media. But I will say that I giggled a little at most of the jokes cracked in the book, and I haven’t watched the series yet but I’m really excited to!

Content Warnings

raine83's review against another edition

5.0

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“You never know what someone is going through. Be kind. Always.” - is the quote that best describes this book for me.

Every character, every flaw, all the differences between them, their childhood & every struggle they went through makes it real. Someone in our world is one of these characters. You’ll just never know who.

Content Warnings

nina_iv's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I like the vibes even though it is diff from what i have ever read

Content Warnings

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