AUTHOR: John Green
PUBLISHED: 2006
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction, Drama
PREMISE: Miles goes off to boarding school and meets the girl of his dreams: Alaska Young.
MY REVIEW: Reviewing books as big as this is always hard for me because really, what can I say that hasn't already been said about this book? You probably already know about the Catcher in the Rye illusions, how Alaska is a deconstruction of the manicpixiedreamgirl trope, and so on and so forth.
So I'll just say this: I really liked it. John Green is a great writer, I get why he's a big thing and the hype is totally deserved (even if it's maybe a bit overdone as usual with most hype). I am now most definitely going to be reading his other stuff as soon as I can get to it. I have a lot on my tbr owned books pile so bear with me.
I will however also say this: please please please stop acting like John Green is the ONLY good writer in the YA category. I direct this mostly to the outsiders of YA. Most YA readers/bloggers probably know this already, but Green is not the only good writer in YA. In fact, much as I loved Looking for Alaska it's not terribly different from other YA books I've read such as 13 Little Blue Envelopes, or If I Stay. Yet I never hear Maureen Johnson or Gayle Forman referred to as literary greats even though they write very similar stories. I have to say that bugs the hell out of me.
But that is not John Green's fault. He'd probably the first to tell you he's not the only author in YA worth reading. Because from what I've seen in his (very hilarious) vlogs, he's pretty humble about everything. So yes, John Green is a good author, you should totally read him. But he's not the ONLY good YA author there.
WHO SHOULD READ: John Green fans, Maureen Johnson fans, Gayle Forman fans, Stephanie Perkins fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five thumbs up
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