A review by unravledwords
Looking for Alaska by John Green

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Pudge has Anakin Skywalker syndrome. Whine and bitch and change nothing. Selfish. Annoying teenage boy. So pretty accurate. 
Alaska doesn’t exist outside of being a sexy girl with a tragic backstory. Would like to know more about Alaska’s dad and their relationship. 
I want to know more about The Colonel, honestly. A boy from little means who is not ashamed of his home or mother, whose mother isn’t a tragic drug addict or “welfare queen” who got into a ritzy private school on his own accomplishments and is probably the smartest mf there but is humble. He was right to shout Pudge down after
Alaska died. Was it suicide? I don’t think it was planned but in the moment and given the opportunity, she took it. Passively suicidal until the door opened.
Laura and Takumi are uninteresting. Takumi was only there to wrap up the “loose ends” of confirming that P+C’s theory was right,
about forgetting her mother’s death anniversary.
Laura was just “another girl” to add a little conflict.
Will Wheaton read the audio book but I didn’t know that until the end and it explained why I was annoyed with the narrator the entire time. 
5/10 for some thought provoking moments, and exactly 1 interesting character we didn’t get to learn about other than “wow poor kids can be smart too.” I do like Alaska and it’s not her book but she deserved more story. 

Pretty solid though if you come at it from the perspective of the intended audience. 
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