Scan barcode
A review by galacticvampire
Looking for Alaska by John Green
4.0
Funny thing: I liked this book more when I was a teenager, but I certainly hadn't understood as much as I did this time around.
Looking for Alaska is a very fair 2005 attempt at deconstructing the manic pixie dream girl stereotype, but it falls short on it being more focused on pointing out the shortcomings of flattening female characters than actually showing an alternative.
So in this process, Alaska never escapes the fate of existing solely for the male characters' benefit. Yes, the whole point was that Miles failed to see her as a real person, but that doesn't mean that the narrative managed to show what was missing.
Nevertheless, this is a really good book about friendship and human relationships, just the John Green's specialty at capturing the magic in even the simplest things in life.
Looking for Alaska is a very fair 2005 attempt at deconstructing the manic pixie dream girl stereotype, but it falls short on it being more focused on pointing out the shortcomings of flattening female characters than actually showing an alternative.
So in this process, Alaska never escapes the fate of existing solely for the male characters' benefit. Yes, the whole point was that Miles failed to see her as a real person, but that doesn't mean that the narrative managed to show what was missing.
Nevertheless, this is a really good book about friendship and human relationships, just the John Green's specialty at capturing the magic in even the simplest things in life.