Every bookworm has their author they feel guilty of liking and John Green is mine. I don't usually read teen fiction much, but I do every once and a while when I need something easy. John Green, however, is far from that. If anything I think he broke new ground in teen fiction. Considering the subjects he tackles in his books, it is no surprise that his debut novel, Looking for Alaska was would be listed in the American Library Association's 2015 list of most challenged books.

So the book follows our main character, Pudge. He earns his nickname out of the irony of how skinny he is. He is a very strange kid. He loves to read biographies and he memorizes the dying words of famous people. When he starts attending a boarding school at the start of his junior year, his life is turned upside down when he meets the sexy but mysterious, Alaska Young. Alaska is a strange girl. Her moods tend to swing radically every time she appears making her unpredictable, she tends to be vague when someone asks her why she's upset, and she flirts with Pudge despite having a boyfriend and insisting she loves him, (I'm serious, she always ruins the moment by saying, "But I love my boyfriend.") There are also a few more interesting characters to boot. Chip Martin, who everyone calls "The Colonel," becomes Pudge's close friend, and has a strategic mind when it comes to pulling pranks on the rich students. Takumi, a Japanese student, (really that is the first thing they say about him,) is a hip hop enthusiast and loves to rap. Lara is a Romanian student with a dirty mind, and there is an ongoing joke where everyone thinks she is Russian.

I'll be honest, the first half of the book was kind of ridiculous. I mean, for most of it, it was really just the five friends messing around, smoking, drinking, pulling pranks while Alaska seems to flirt tease with Pudge. Alaska tries to set Pudge up with Lara, but it doesn't go anywhere. During Thanksgiving vacation, Pudge stays at the school with Alaska to pull pranks on the rich classmen who nearly drowned Pudge at the beginning of the year, it was some sort of hazing. And while Alaska's character remains odd, she is given a level of depth. She seemingly suffers from post-trauma after witnessing her mother die of an aneurysm when she was eight. She also never forgave herself for failing to call 911 at the time, so every January eigth she places a white rose on her mother's grave. While it is arguable that she wouldn't have been capable of understanding it at the time. This does play out in the second half of the book.

That's another thing, the second half of the book was just... upsetting. One night, after Pudge and Alaska, have a brief making out session, while they were drunk. Alaska leaves the room to call her boyfriend. Suddenly she bursts into the room suddenly upset and drives off into the night. The next morning, it is learned that she had died after crashing into a cop car. It's hinted at the possibility of suicide, but it's unknown. Everyone is devastated by it, especially Pudge and the Colonel.

And the second half of the book is a combination of the friends coming to terms with her death and trying to figure out if it was suicide or not. I would love to talk about it, but I don't want to spoil the book for you. I want you to experience the same emotions that I did. I will say this, while it seems to come out of nowhere in a very anti-climatic manner, it makes so much sense. I say anti-climatic because Pudge and The Colonel don't exactly find out on their own, they are told about it by a friend.

As you can see, there isn't much of a plot here. That's because this book is more of a character study. We get a deep look into the characters, seeing what drives them, what makes them happy, sad, angry and how they interact with each other. There are moments in the book where the characters don't even talk, they just observe the world around them advancing the emotions of the scene. I found myself laughing at one page while being moved to tears in another page. I was moved by this book. There are themes of philosophy that I couldn't even discuss because it would ruin the whole book.

I can tell you one obvious theme is people aren't always what they seem. We walk around school, work, and just a neighborhood every day. We see people do things, we see people act strange, do strange things, and we just call them strange for it. But we don't truly know who those people are. Maybe that silent kid that sits alone at the lunch table loves to dance and play guitar. Maybe the fat boy that sent you a rose for valentines day actually has a heart of gold. The tragic aspect is, we will never exactly know who Alaska is because she is dead, but Pudge has to acknowledge that there was more to her than the cryptic girl he knew.

The characters are interesting, the story is one I've never read before, and it was moving in ways I can't even describe. Looking for Alaska is a page turner, well worth the read.

But these are just my opinions. Have you read the book? If so, do you want to read it now? Comment below and study for those finals.