If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane. Miles Halter’s whole life has been one big non-event, until he meets Alaska Young. Gorgeous, clever and undoubtably screwed up, Alaska draws Miles into her reckless world and irrevocably steals his heart. For Miles, nothing can ever me the same again.

LOOKING FOR ALASKA is the bestselling award-winning debut from the author of the international phenomenon THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. It brilliantly captures the exquisite, painful joy of living and loving. Poignant, funny and heartbreaking, this novel will stay with you forever.

My thoughts

This was a book club choice and I was intrigued right from the beginning. Looking for Alaska is the debut novel from the author who literally had me sobbing throughout The Fault in Our Stars. Alaska was published back in 2005 when the author himself was only 27 years of age. It came from a place of personal heartbreak and exploring the things that make us stronger – if we survive them. I read the 20th anniversary edition which includes an introduction from the author. In it he explains…

I decided the book would be divided into before and after because some events in a human life are so seismic that they change time itself.’

So what did I make of it? How wonderful is it that we can open a book and return to life as a teenager. It’s been a while. I spend my working days surrounded by them and am always helping them find their reading joy and so it’s good to be reminded how it feels to be that young. Looking for Alaska is a story about finding your own way, finding your tribe, falling in love, falling in hate and most of all, I believe, it is about the capacity we have for surviving a broken heart and how the things that happen to us, especially as a teenager, make us truly who we are. What we choose to do with that however is down to us. We can hold on to the bad and let it consume us or we can let it make us stronger and ultimately make the good things all the sweeter because of the hurt.

This was generally enjoyed by our book club members – not one teenager amongst them – and some expected it to be another teenage love story with a happy ever after. What they didn’t expect was something that was so moving and reminded us what it was like to be young. The cast of characters in this book will stay with me for a long time. I loved Alaska. She was a ball of energy. Sad, terrifying, smart and simply wonderful. I would have loved to have been able to hug her and tell her that it was okay. It wasn’t her fault. In fact I would have liked to have done that for Miles too (and Colonel). This is the beauty of a great novel. You really do care about the characters that you meet within and what they are going through.

I’m so glad I read this novel. A brilliant debut and one I would thoroughly recommend.

Thank you for visiting today and please feel free to leave your thoughts on Looking for Alaska in the comments below.

Happy reading!