I’m sorry Mr. Green. You seem like a lovely person (I always enjoy you on podcasts or writing other places), but your books do not do it for me. I know you don’t care, as I’m no longer your target audience, but even back in the day I have a feeling I’d have called Miles Halter a pretentious little sh*t. Teenage me was a lot tougher on characters then I am now.
Looking for Alaska is the story of Miles Halter. Friendless Miles comes from somewhere in Florida, and therefore decides to follow in his father’s footsteps to attend a prestigious boarding school in Alabama in the hopes to chase “the great perhaps”. There Miles meets Chip Martin, his roommate, and then Alaska Young titular Alaska and Miles’ instant crush who has a boyfriend. We then proceed through their school year as events great and small unfold.
And ugh. I listened to this one, and the narrator was excellent, but it was only a 7 hour book, yet took me over 2 months to finish listening to because see the first sentence of this paragraph. I know a grown a** woman is not who he’s writing for, but still I’m a pretty hardcore young adult fan, especially a good coming of age story. They’re my crack after romance novels. This one did not do it for me. I have no issues with the swearing (I used to have the mouth of a sailor in high school, still kinda do), drinking or smoking. Most kids did it. I was a goody goody, but the “realness” of the characters didn’t bother me in the least. Not even the selfishness of the characters, all teenagers are selfish in those ways. I look back and remember quite clearly being that way.
What bothered me was the insufferable aftermath of the climax. We all knew it was coming, but goodness afterwards Miles became absolutely unbearable. I finished only so I could write this review. SPOILERS for a 10 year old book folks: Alaska dies. Miles, due to instant crush, feels he has a special claim on Alaska’s death. He becomes a useless, more terrible and more obnoxious teenager than normal, even his teenage friends call him out on it, and yet he still continues on. I know what it’s like to lose someone horrifically as a teenager (by the time I went to college I had 5 friends die from car accidents none involving drinking). I know those feelings as well as anyone out there, and it took a lot of counseling over the years to come to terms with it all. And still. NO ONE behaved as terribly as this awful, spoiled brat trying to claim Alaska’s death as all his own. It drove me bananas as I finished this on an 8 hour drive yesterday.
There is much more I could say about this one, but it makes me too angry. I don’t recommend unless you really connect to bratty teenage stories, but there are many other, much better options out there coming of age wise. The reason it gets more than 1 star is just because the narration was very well done.
