Looking for Alaska by John Green

title: Looking for Alaska

written by: John Green 

series: -

genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemp

page count: 211

publication date: January 1st, 2005

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.

Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh! John Green did it again! His first book, for me the last, is a masterpiece! Looking for Alaska belongs on my shelves, between my most-loved books. I never want to return it to the library. Ever. So, first of all, John Green - write more books. Please. For me? Otherwise ... ...  *scary glare* Looking for Alaska was not my favorite John Green book, that will, and will always remain to be, the Fault in our Stars. I absolutely LOVE that book. Make sure to read it!

Looking for Alaska is a typical John Green book. It is a) realistic, b) full of words I have to look up in my dictionary, c) is enormously sad, and d) I can talk about it for hours, and I will...  Especially d) -well, only d)- really annoys my friends and family. I will go rambling about this book for hours and they just have to listen. I think most of them have developed a mental mute mode with which they can switch the sound of my voice on and off... Actually it would be great if a thing like that existed :)

The characters were so wonderful. Miles, the main male character, was so a-dore-able. I totally want to hug him at the moment. His obsession with last words is one that is amazing and so original. Maybe I should pay more attention to them, too. :) And Alaska is so 101% messed up I just had to love her. I mean, you can choose your own name, and you choose Alaska, that told me a lot about her character already! Then there was Chip, the genius annex rebel and Miles' roommate. The three of them formed an amazing group of friends. I wish I knew them, and could be their fourth(/fifth) messed up friend!

John Green is the master of character development. This book had one major turning point, not very hard to locate because of the before-after writing style, which was pretty unique, just like the whole book was a one-of-a-kind book. Miles changed só much, but Green still made the whole transition look realistic. He totally deserves a medal for that! A big fat gold with diamonds medal!

The plot, however, was the best thing about this book. Never have I ever read a book with a plot as well thought-through and perfect as Looking for Alaska's. Everything worked out, every word sucked me deeper into the story and the lives of Miles, Alaska and Chip, and I loved everything about it! Most of the times I'm like - bwhlegg another college/high school story. But this one was indescribably good, incredibly close to perfection. The Before--After writing style was perfect for this book. It made the story easier to read, and made me interested. What was going to happen?!?! When I had found out I wished I could turn back the time. Oh my, I cried. I cried buckets full of tears. Like the girl in Absolutely - nine days. I quote: "this is the story of a girl, that cried a river and drowned the whole world" That song has been stuck in my head for days. Then there was the Great Perhaps and it made me think so much, about the labyrinth of suffering and all of it. 

Anyways, what usually bothers me about John Green's books, his use of extremely difficult words, was no problem with this book. Miles was a kind of genius, and so were -most of- the other characters, so I could imagine them really speaking like that. 

I've heard that people in America have to read this book in class. Lucky bastards! I wish I were reading such amazing books in class, but the only book I have had to read in class was Romeo and Juliet... 

I will never be able to give this book a rating worth it. It should get the highest number possible +1 out of 5!

DFTBA!!!

Love, Mar

ps; did you read this book? Do we share the same feelings about it? Let me know :)

Paper towns by John Green

book: Paper towns
written by: John Green
genres: young adult, romance, life
pages: 304
own / library / borrowed
release date: October 16th, 2008
series? nope
publisher: Dutton Juvenile


note: John Green is and remains the god of writing. I love his books, and by that I mean all of them! Still, even after reading Paper Towns, The Fault in our Stars is my favourite, but I haven't read Looking for Alaska yet...

the book: 
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night - dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows her. Margo's always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she's always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they're for Q. (summary from goodreads)

my review:
This is one more of John Green's genius novels, and altough I think this is the worst one he has written, I still loved it! The characters were, again, great. They had lots of humor you could read about in the things they said, and they were like real people, which I think is great. This is again a totally realistic book, something I do usually dislike, but love when John Green writes it :)
In this book Q is looking for Margo (whose name I love, since I'm called Margot), who just seems to have disappeared. She is his friend from childage, who has not spoken to him for a decade. And with that is meant a real, total, decade! Then, just at once, she appears in front of a window, and takes him out on a night full of awesome adventures and revenge. She is crazy, but in a positive way, I think :) There are some things that really show that her character is awesome, and that are really funny, Like her strange Use of Capitalisation and her love for random facts and, of course, as in all John Green books, books and poetry. Then there is Q, and he is funny in his own way. His hate for prom and other high school things is hilarious, because all his friends are obsessed with the stuff he hates. 
I think Jogh Green's novels show the world that you don't have to be beautiful or super smart to get friends and live an awesome life full of adventures. His characters are just normal people, with normal crazy parents, normal problems and still he can make them the most interesting people alive, and that makes John Green the god of writing!!!
A paper town is a town that does exsist on a map, but not in real life. There is nobody living in there *or something* I did not know that while reading the book, and now that I know it, it all makes sense xD I really should translate or look up the title of a book before reading it, because this happens to me all the time... I wish English were my mother tongue, or at least that I know more English words... 
And OMG how awesome is it when your parents have the biggest collection of Black Santas in the world?! Things like that always appear in John Green's books, and they make me laugh over and over, because I keep on thinking what would happen if my parents were like that, always collecting Black Santas. Radar's *awesome name* parents are obsessed with black santas xD Sorry but I can just keep on saying 'world's biggest collection of black santas' and keep on imagining my room filled with all those santas xD *enough about the santas, everything else I type about them will be deleted :D*
I think I can continue talking about this book for hours and hours, but I will not bore you with my rambling :D


rating:
5 stars, dôh :) and then I think this is John Green's least genius book. You can imagine how awesome I think the other ones are xD I really need to real Looking for Alaska soon, people keep on recommending it to me xD


ciao, 
xo Mar

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

book: the Fault in our Stars
written by: John Green
genres: young adult, disease, romance
pages: 317
own / library / borrowed
release date: january 10th, 2012
series?: nope
publisher: Dutton Juvenile


note:
Dear John Green. You are genius. No, you are more than that. You are the god of writing. Never ever will I read a book the same! This book is life-changing heart-breaking supermegafreakingawesome! I have been looking for the best words to describe and review this book for the past two days, and still I know I just haven't found the right ones. Just this one that flooped out of my mouth after reading. "WOW"

the book:
2 years ago, a miracle happened to Hazel. The tumors in her lungs shrunk, and she could live like a normal person again. She knew this was just pretending, and that she was not cured forever. But she never became her disease, like other cancer patients. She kept on fighting until she conquered her disease, which seems like an impossible mission.
Hazel is part of a cancer support group, which she does not want to be part of at all. Her mom makes her go there, to make some friends. There she meets August Waters, a guy she's immediately interested in. And, to her surprise, he is interested in her, too!
There is only one thing between them and their future, the disease. Will they conquer it or will the disease take their lives away?

my review:
This book was perfect!!! Everyone should read it! The title, which is based on a Shakespeare-quote, was perfect for this book, and I cannot think of any improvements to this book, honestly.
I will list a few things I loved about this book below:

• the characters: They both have this great sense of humor, and they both are not their disease, but just themselves. They love to read, they care about their friends, their love is real, they are honest. Everyones should be like them - the disease...
• the story in general: Most of the books about kids with cancer are boring and just not my thing. This story was great, because it was not a normal cancer story. The characters were not boring, they were not sad, they do other things than suffer, they live. Things happen to them, even when they have cancer. It just seemed so realistic!
• the parts about the Netherlands: I, as a Dutch girl, do love to read about American *or from every other country* people visiting the Netherlands. I love to read about what other people think is stange about the coutry I live in, because to me it is just normal. And I love to read about prejudices made about Dutch people. This book included 'All Dutch people talk in lots of languages' 'there are coffeeshops on every corner of the street' and 'Dutch people dare to ask questions American people would not ask.' And you know, they all are *partly* true!
• the ending of the story: How on earth could you break my heart like this, John Green. This book changed my like. An ending like this will leave everyone heartbroken, and by that I mean EVERYONE! This is a very unusual ending, and it fitted the book so well. It was very sad and funny at the same time. It was like the characters, it was like it really happens. It almost seemed as if it were a non-fictional book. I even looked at the first page again, and read again the words of the author that really said that this was a work of fiction, which left me surprised
• how this book changed me: As Cassandra Clare once wrote: “One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.” This book has changed my view on the world. It showed me that we don't have infinity, and that we just have to make the best of the timee we have. It shows us that Dutch people really are lunatics, especially if they're from Amsterdam. It showed me that people that have cancer do not have to be sad always, because they are going to die. It showed me that books really do change your life. It showed me a way more things I had never really thought about before, and made me think about them a lot.
• how this book made me feel: I have never cried this much while reading a book. I have to be honest about this. I do not cry while reading very quick, but this book made me first cry around page 50, and I did not stop crying until hours after finishing this book. The day after reading this I looked like a zombie *in a bad way* and almost fell asleep during classed
• John Green did live in Amsterdam for 2 months! In a street I have been to. John Green lived someplace I had been before. GOD lived in Amsterdam, in my country!!

conclusion:

run to your bookstore. Go buy this book! Is it night? Go to amazon/bookdepository/barnesandnoble/whatever and but this book! But only start reading it when you have enough time to read it in one sit, or you'll end up like a total zombie!! 

total:

I would give this book a zillion stars out of five :) 

100000000000000000000000/5 :) (or just 5/5, since that is the highest rating available...)

xo Mar

An abundance of Katherines by John Green

book: An abundance of Katherines

written by: John Green

genres: romance, drama, humor

pages: 227

own / library / borrowed

release date: september 9th, 2006

series? nope

publisher: Dutton Juvenile

note: holy crap I loved this book. I would change my name to Katherine for you, Colin <3

the book:

Colin is not like any other boy, he is a child prodigy. He speaks lots of languages, and is very good at mathematics. Actually he is good at everything, including getting dumped. There is something special about his type of girl. He only dates Katherines, he always likes Katherines. But also, Katherines never ever like him. Colin is heartbroken after Katherine XIX broke up with him, and decides to go on a roadtrip with his best friend Hassan. They end up in a small town, Gutshot, Tennessee, where they start to live. Colins starts working on a theorem, which should be able to show a relationship, and also predict the future. Will Colin succeed in doing this or will he fail, for the first time in his life?

my review:

Holy sh*t!!! John Green, you are genius! The characters you create are real, the stories you write are unusual, which makes them new in their category, and with that special and awesome! Colin is a very, very smart boy, but you will see that he is also just a normal teenager, who will be left heartbroken every time he is dumped *which was quite an amount of times, btw* and has the same problems as everyone else has with friends and being popular.

I think the cover may scare the hell outta people, because they see all the math signs. I, as a math nerd, immediately fell in love with the book, only after seeing the cover. The book was full of math, but that did not make it more difficult to understand or boring.
Also I loved all the anagramming in this book. I, as one, love to anagram, but am just not very good at it. This book made me want to improve my anagramming skills, and that's a good thing. right? Dingleberries! (a word with lots of possibilities to anagram, try yourself)

The book was written and edited very well, not very hard to read, just an average level of difficulcy, which made it readable for people like me, whose English is not very good.

John Green, of whom I read one other book, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, seems like the #1 writer I discovered in 2012. and I'm sure I'll read more of his books. Actually two of his other books *Paper towns and the fault in our stars* are already lying on my shelves, about to be read by me :D

The story was great, the characters felt like friends and I feel like I have actually learned something after reading this book. Did you know that in every shower there is a tiny little small whirlpool, that causes the shower curtain to move inwards? I did not before reading this book.

And John Green, the one Dutch word you used *paardenlul, p. 178* made my day. Really, it made me laugh that of all swearwords of the Dutch language you use this one, one I have never used before :D *no, I'm not gonna translate it, look it up on google translator if you're interested :P*

I guess I could go on talking about how much I loved this book for days, but I have to go change my name to Katherine :P *just kidding*

rating:

5+/5 stars FTW

xo, Mar

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

book: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
written by: John Green and David Levithan
genre: teen drama, romance, gay, ya
pages: 310
own / library / borrowed
release date: April 6th, 2010
series?: nope
publisher: Dutton Juvenile


note: I just slapped myself a zillion times because I was so stupid I had never picked up this book before. Seriously, read this book. Read it now! Wait, don't go yet, first read my review ;)


the book:
Will Grayson meets Will Grayson. Except their names and the language they speak they do not have a lot in common. Actually, they don't have anything in common. At all. The book is written from both Will Grayson and will grayson 's points of view. *see the difference in capitals c:* Will Grayson is a normal boy, but his best friend is anything but normal. Tiny is as gay as possible, and he's directing a musical about himself. Then you have will grayson. He is depressed, and his only real friend is Isaac, a boy he met via the internet. Then they meet each other, and their lives intertwine. 


my review:
O.M.G. is it possible to love a book as much as I did love this one? I want to hug this book. I want Will and will and Tiny to be my best friends. I want to meet them. 
I liked will grayson more than Will Grayson, but both of them are very strong characters. will grayson is a very interesting character because he is a very unique person. He has gone through a lot of shit in his life, and is depressed. But still he is funny, even tough the things he says include lots of 'fuck' *which only made it funnier for me* Will Grayson, however, is more serious. Like you expect a boy to be, if you are a girl. He is normal, does not confess that he's in love with the girl. He does not really like his best friend. He does not see how important everyone is until they let go of him and he's all alone. 
Tiny is the most awesome gay dude, and I want to meet him! He has his own musical, is out of the closet and has his own Gay-Straight Alliance. He is always positive and very lady-like. He is just like Kurt from the tv-series Glee, only he is not a fragile dude, but a big football player.
The way this book was written was super! This is a very quick read. The chapters of Will Grayson are written  with capitals, while the chapters of will grayson aren't. Also, there are the dialogues written like it's a play. Great.
And the ending was just perfect. It made me talk to the book. "I appreciate you, Tiny Cooper!"


total:
I cannot give this book less than 5/5 stars, but if I could I would!


recommendation to:
Everyone (also adults) aged 13 up!