Twice Baked Thursday is an original weekly meme created here at Cardigans, Coffee and Bookmarks. This feature was created because Randi and I (Becky), often read the same books and have very different opinions about them. When we read the same book we do a joint review on it, showing both sides. Our reviews will "talk back" to one another, one reviewer writing in another color text. Please feel free to join us and link to our blog in your post, and also use the widget below to link your own double review to our page.
This week's book is Looking for Alaska by John Green. Our twist will be a read-alike list for this title (if you liked...read....).
Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Genre: YA Contemporary Realism
Pages: 220
Source: Library (Yet another book Randi owns!)
Rating: 5 I'd marry this book
4.5 I'd propose to this book over coffee
Summary from Goodreads: Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.
Becky (Randi's talking back to Becky's review in RED!): This book was so good I didn't even put it down to donate plasma. I didn't put it down until I was falling asleep on the couch. Then I promptly woke up early (for me), grabbed my large Dunkin' Donuts coconut iced coffee out of the fridge and my double chocolate donut, and didn't put it down until I was done. I was flipping those pages one handed, but it was worth it. Did that while I drank coffee, ate donut, and ate the chocolate chip pancakes my hubby made when he got home. If you're looking for a book with characters so vibrant and real you forget you're reading fiction, then this book is for you. If you're not looking for that...don't you think you should be? You definitely should be. There were clear parallels to The Catcher in the Rye structurally, thematically, and in the writing style. Eh, I love both of these books for different reasons. I felt like I learned different lessons from both. In my opinion, Looking for Alaska has more of an "ending" than The Catcher in the Rye, which I think has a more open-ended conclusion. Also, I felt much more in Holden's head than I did in Pudge's - with Pudge, I was more of a bystander. Your mom is a bystander.
The pace was unhurried, but compelling. It wasn't the kind of book you could rush. Oops!! The compelling bit totally made me rush it. The character-centered story-line was full of literary references and introspection. HUGE fan of literary references in my fiction. Pudge's obsession with peoples' last words was a unique twist. And Alaska's obsession with the labyrinth (and her Life Library) provided a wonderful alternative to the "OMG I LOVE BOOKS" main characters so persistent in YA. Though I love those characters, Alaska and Pudge both had non-typical inclinations, which made them even more real to me. The tone was varied, sometimes humorous, sometimes bleak, but always bittersweet. Green's writing style is conversational and candid with a prosaic attention to language. John Green has a wonderful way with words. It seemed like virtually every line would make a great quote. Sadly, most of my favorite quotes include spoilery bits, so I'll refrain from including any. Suffice to say, you must read this.
After reading this I promptly added all Green's other books on goodreads. Read The Fault in Our Stars already, blast you, woman!
We hope you enjoyed this Twice Baked Thursday post!
Links to read-alike books (all links go to Goodreads):
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Twice Baked Thursday is an original weekly meme created here at Cardigans, Coffee and Bookmarks. This feature was created because Randi and I (Becky), often read the same books and have very different opinions about them. When we read the same book we do a joint review on it, showing both sides. Our reviews will "talk back" to one another, one reviewer writing in another color text. Please feel free to join us and link to our blog in your post, and also use the widget below to link your own double review to our page.
This week's book is Looking for Alaska by John Green. Our twist will be a read-alike list for this title (if you liked...read....).
Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Genre: YA Contemporary Realism
Pages: 220
Source: Library (Yet another book Randi owns!)
Rating: 5 I'd marry this book
4.5 I'd propose to this book over coffee
Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Genre: YA Contemporary Realism
Pages: 220
Source: Library (Yet another book Randi owns!)
Rating: 5 I'd marry this book
4.5 I'd propose to this book over coffee
Summary from Goodreads: Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.
Becky (Randi's talking back to Becky's review in RED!): This book was so good I didn't even put it down to donate plasma. I didn't put it down until I was falling asleep on the couch. Then I promptly woke up early (for me), grabbed my large Dunkin' Donuts coconut iced coffee out of the fridge and my double chocolate donut, and didn't put it down until I was done. I was flipping those pages one handed, but it was worth it. Did that while I drank coffee, ate donut, and ate the chocolate chip pancakes my hubby made when he got home. If you're looking for a book with characters so vibrant and real you forget you're reading fiction, then this book is for you. If you're not looking for that...don't you think you should be? You definitely should be. There were clear parallels to The Catcher in the Rye structurally, thematically, and in the writing style. Eh, I love both of these books for different reasons. I felt like I learned different lessons from both. In my opinion, Looking for Alaska has more of an "ending" than The Catcher in the Rye, which I think has a more open-ended conclusion. Also, I felt much more in Holden's head than I did in Pudge's - with Pudge, I was more of a bystander. Your mom is a bystander.
The pace was unhurried, but compelling. It wasn't the kind of book you could rush. Oops!! The compelling bit totally made me rush it. The character-centered story-line was full of literary references and introspection. HUGE fan of literary references in my fiction. Pudge's obsession with peoples' last words was a unique twist. And Alaska's obsession with the labyrinth (and her Life Library) provided a wonderful alternative to the "OMG I LOVE BOOKS" main characters so persistent in YA. Though I love those characters, Alaska and Pudge both had non-typical inclinations, which made them even more real to me. The tone was varied, sometimes humorous, sometimes bleak, but always bittersweet. Green's writing style is conversational and candid with a prosaic attention to language. John Green has a wonderful way with words. It seemed like virtually every line would make a great quote. Sadly, most of my favorite quotes include spoilery bits, so I'll refrain from including any. Suffice to say, you must read this.
After reading this I promptly added all Green's other books on goodreads. Read The Fault in Our Stars already, blast you, woman!
We hope you enjoyed this Twice Baked Thursday post!
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Links to read-alike books (all links go to Goodreads):
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Strangely enough this was my least favorite of his books. The Fault in Our Stars is my all time favorite and the only one I haven't read is Paper Towns (what is wrong with me?!). But I seem to be in the minority, most people LOVE this book. It maybe was my connection with Alaska and why/how I disliked her. I'm not sure. I liked the book, but it's definitely not my favorite of his.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED TFiOS! It was my first John Green book. I didn't really care for Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but really liked Looking for Alaska. :) Definitely doesn't top TFiOS for me, though!
DeleteI have The Fault in Our Stars checked out, so I guess I will see if I love it as much as this one. I can't help but wonder why you disliked Alaska? I mean, yes she flirted with many boys and had violent mood swings, but she was so complex!!!!
ReplyDelete