"Looking for Alaska" by John Green is one of my favorite books by the author. It is a young adult fiction book but focuses on topics that could be considered to be quite mature. The book takes a dark turn towards the middle that I did not see coming. Like many John Green books, he takes a serious topic and makes it light for the reader to digest without stripping its significance.
The book is easy to get into because it starts out with an issue that many young readers can relate to-- not fitting in. The main character, Miles, does not fit into his public school so he decides to go to a boarding school in a very different environment from what he is used to. The book explores how he learns to adapt to his new "home" and tries to blend in with the new people. It shows how his (few) friendships form, especially with a girl named Alaska. The focus in the first half of the book is on Miles trying to figure out Alaska because she is not an easy character to understand. By the middle of the book things are completely different and the main character has to go through a major life change. The book was already interesting, but after the conflict it becomes even more so.
The main character is pretty easy to relate to and not hard to understand. The author frequently lets the reader know what Miles is thinking, so it is not a guessing game like in other books. Like Miles, almost all of the other important characters are well-developed and you can see how they change over the course of the book. However, there was one character that was hard to understand at times because she was so complex, but I guess that was one of her traits--being mysterious.
I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is looking for something easy to get into. The author is very talented at relating to young readers and does a good job developing plot as well as characters.
The book is easy to get into because it starts out with an issue that many young readers can relate to-- not fitting in. The main character, Miles, does not fit into his public school so he decides to go to a boarding school in a very different environment from what he is used to. The book explores how he learns to adapt to his new "home" and tries to blend in with the new people. It shows how his (few) friendships form, especially with a girl named Alaska. The focus in the first half of the book is on Miles trying to figure out Alaska because she is not an easy character to understand. By the middle of the book things are completely different and the main character has to go through a major life change. The book was already interesting, but after the conflict it becomes even more so.
The main character is pretty easy to relate to and not hard to understand. The author frequently lets the reader know what Miles is thinking, so it is not a guessing game like in other books. Like Miles, almost all of the other important characters are well-developed and you can see how they change over the course of the book. However, there was one character that was hard to understand at times because she was so complex, but I guess that was one of her traits--being mysterious.
I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is looking for something easy to get into. The author is very talented at relating to young readers and does a good job developing plot as well as characters.