Looking for Alaska
John Green, 2005
Young adult Contemporary fictionRomance
A boy leaves Florida for an Alabama boarding school and falls in with a girl who makes every rule feel like a question worth breaking. Witty boarding-school banter carries a current of wonder, with friendships that feel loose and funny until they turn more serious.
Feels like wonder. About friendship.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy sharp teenage voices, close friend groups, and rule-breaking that pulls against school routine. The prankish, restless energy can make stretches feel more like hanging out than plotting, so it may not suit you if you want a tightly paced romance.
Why read it
It catches the way smart teenagers argue, joke, and test each other, and it asks what friendship owes to someone who keeps changing the rules.
A page from the book
The case for being seventeen and certain nothing can end you.
When adults say, “Teenagers think they are invincible” with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don’t know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail. John Green.John Green's debut was inspired by his own years at Indian Springs, a boarding school outside Birmingham, Alabama; it won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award.
Books that feel like this
More by John Green
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green, 2012
A witty, dying teenager meets a boy who refuses to be solemn, and together they argue with oblivion, love, and the author of an unfinished book.
Paper Towns
John Green, 2008
A boy who has loved the girl next door from afar gets one wild night with her—and then she vanishes, leaving clues meant for him.
Turtles All the Way Down
John Green, 2017
An observant voice dissect's the anxiety of modern youth, navigating the disconnect between internal obsession and external performance.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Looking for Alaska for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy sharp teenage voices, close friend groups, and rule-breaking that pulls against school routine. The prankish, restless energy can make stretches feel more like hanging out than plotting, so it may not suit you if you want a tightly paced romance.
- What is Looking for Alaska like?
- Witty boarding-school banter carries a current of wonder, with friendships that feel loose and funny until they turn more serious. Feels like wonder. About friendship.
- What should I read after Looking for Alaska?
- If you liked Looking for Alaska, try Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling), The Raven Boys (Maggie Stiefvater) and The Cheat Sheet (Sarah Adams).
A taste of the feed
The courage nobody applauds is the kind you spend on a friend.
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone · J.K. Rowling
Why the fullest love can feel, from the inside, like grief.
She recognized the strange happiness that came from loving something without knowing why you did, that strange happiness that was sometimes so big that it felt like sadness.
The Raven Boys · Maggie Stiefvater
The small gesture that quietly turns a friendship into something else.
We were on our final lap of that very first run together when his hand caught mine. He tugged me to a stop then bent down in front of me and tied my shoe. He could have just told me it was untied, but no—Nathan’s not like that. It doesn’t matter who you are or how famous he is; if your shoe is untied, he’s going to tie it for you. I’ve never met anyone else like that. I was so gone for him from day one.
The Cheat Sheet · Sarah Adams
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