I Would Have Fallen for Alaska Too

A while back on her Be a Librarian blog, Kelly wrote about Looking for Alaska by John Green. She recognized it as a good book, but said it didn't really do it for her. On the other hand, I just finished reading the book last night and it really worked for me (unlike, say, Moby Dick). Heck, it's what I voted for at the Mock Printz even though I was only 40 pages into it at the time (of course, the other ones I'd read had already been eliminated, but I liked it from the first page). On a surface level, I have very little in common with Pudge, the 16-year-old main character. I didn't go to boarding school in Alabama, I've never had an obsession with last words, I didn't smoke and drink in high school, I didn't run around with a group of prankster friends, etc. But at a deeper level, I really related to and identified with this character. I felt what he was going through and got emotionally involved. He never gave a particularly flattering description of Alaska, for instance, but I knew he was falling for her before he did because I was too when seeing her through his eyes. Heck, I even got sympathetically horny with him and his yearning because it made me remember what it was like to be 16 and awkward and hopeful. And I don't think it is just me, because a lot of people are talking about it as one of the best books of the year and voting for it at their Mock Printz discussions. There's nothing flashy or unusual about the story, but it's very effectively written.