I first read Looking for Alaska two or three years ago, and reread it recently for the MFA. I enjoyed it the second time around, too. Of course, I was “reading as a writer” so the experience was a little different. Still, it’s a good story told well.

Miles Halter is a studious and mostly friendless 16-year-old in Florida when the book opens, but he’s fine with his situation. He does want more out of life and is seeking the “Great Perhaps,” a journey he’s starting by heading off to an Alabama boarding school—where he’s won a scholarship. Once there, he befriends his roommate, nicknamed “the Colonel”, who introduces him to other friends, especially a girl named Alaska. An evening conversation with her is all it takes for Miles to fall in love (she’s, of course, hot). But she’s also wild and has a boyfriend. She’s the quintessential manic pixie dream girl.

The Colonel and Alaska introduce Miles to cigarettes and drinking, and Miles takes to his new social life like a champ. Suddenly he’s a major rule-breaker along with the rest of them. Then, in some ways not a lot else happens until the major event a little past halfway through the book. Miles hangs out with them and continues to be smitten by Alaska. Another girl, Lara, has a bit of a crush on him and he sort of starts seeing her (he doesn’t mind getting his first BJ from her at all). But then the Big Event happens. And like the back of the book says, nothing is ever the same.

Except it kind of is, and Miles has to come to terms with that. Life is full of major events and they’re not all pleasant. Feeling a little guilty about their role in the Big Event, he and the Colonel embark on a mission to find out what happened, ultimately realizing that they can’t really know.

It’s cool to see Miles develop over the second half, actually. Because he’s not really very nice to the people around him, especially Lara. He’s a believable, fairly self-absorbed boy. But by the end he has grown and I think he’s on his way to being a nicer guy.

Miles’s voice in the book is great—intelligent and a little sarcastic (not too much). And the novel is funny. Miles says:

You can say a lot of bad things about Alabama, but you can’t say that Alabamans as a people are unduly afraid of deep fryers.

Green has a way with words and pulls you into all the characters. Alaska is the most elusive of the major characters, but that’s by design.

So if you want to see a realistic portrayal of a teen boy going through his first real crush and having to deal with his first real tragedy, this is a good book for it. But if you can’t handle kids behaving badly, you might not like it. Because they do a lot of getting up to no good.