Book Club: Looking for Alaska

Have you finally stopped sniffling after watching TFioS? You know, they say that love story might define our generation, or maybe the next generation. Because it takes a lot to top Allie and Noah. But that is neither here nor there. 

I was stuck in a John Green mood and kicking myself for never having read any of his other books. And Looking for Alaska came highly recommended by just about everyone. 

While slow in the beginning, Looking for Alaska had just as an emotional ending, if not more, than TFioS. I hate to say it, but knowing that I was reading a book about teens with cancer, I knew that someone had to die. But I was completely caught off guard with this one.

Set in a boarding school in the suburbs of Birmingham, a group of outsiders takes one more into their fold. They are bound together by a love of pulling the ultimate prank and a deep distaste for the "Weekend Warriors" (aka the kids who lived close enough to leave the non-air conditioned dorms for the comfort of home on the weekend). 

I'm constantly amazed at Green's ability to create characters who are complex and have flaws. The groups' fatal flaw is that they were too wrapped up in their own lives, dramas and situations that they failed to recognize the struggles of the others until it was too late.

And then you have the search for the Great Perhaps. Everyone can relate to that feeling. If you are honest with yourself, there have been many occasions where the thought or idea of a person or event in your mind has surpassed the person or event in real life. Knowing that you want to live a full life, make a difference, be remembered, but not knowing what exactly that looks like in reality can lead you to pass life by without a backwards glance. 

Realizing that the search for the Great Perhaps may seem exciting, but is ultimately futile is a hard pill to swallow at any age.