Looking for Alaska by John Green

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Looking for Alaska
by John Green
(Audio)

Once in a while I read a book so incredibly good that I want to go to everyone-- family, friends, coworkers, strangers on the street-- and thrust the book at them, demanding they read it, because I cannot imagine that anyone won't love it as much as I do. Obviously, this is one of those books for me. I even hesitate to return it to the library because I want to keep it and have it for my own. LOL I'll be buying a copy pretty soon, obviously.

Just a little background. This book has been cropping up everywhere in the Harry Potter fandom. The author was a keynote speaker at LeakyCon (which I didn't get to go to, but which is obviously telling). I was chatting with a Wizard Rocker online and she recommended it to me (she was working on a lesson plan for her students about it). And then another few Wizard Rockers created a song about it. So after it kept jumping out at me, I finally broke down and got it out of the library. I wish I'd read it fifteen years ago.

This is a fantastic book. But that doesn't go far enough. Not nearly far enough. It's spectacularly real-- the characters, the problems, the dialoge, the emotions, the everything. Sometimes wonderful and sometimes awful, but always real. You can't help but love these strange characters, the labyrinth, and last lines.

The book is cleverly set up in Before and After segments. In Before, it counts down to a significant, life-altering event. 100 days before, 95 days before, etc. And though I had guessed from the song what that event was, it still hit me like a ton of bricks. And then came After. 1 day after, 2 days after... I was shocked. One week after, one month after, and I wanted answers. At least, I thought I did. I went through the whole gambit of emotions right along with the characters. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. And even though I worked out the mystery-- or part of it, at least-- before the characters did as a whole, I still loved every single second of it.

It makes you think, it makes you feel, and it makes you wonder. I can't get it out of my head, and I don't think that I ever want to :-) If you haven't read it, seriously, go read it. What are you waiting for? Apart from me returning it to the library ;-)