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Reception
Looking for Alaska received mostly positive reviews,Haegele, for instance noted" the characters in Green's book have a certain appealing adultness to them, making it a fine read even for the no longer-teenager." Sieruta agreed in The Horn Book Magazine. He added "the characters are notably complex and realistically portrayed teenagers." Lewis says "Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light." However Haegele also said the characters are not distinct enough, so it blurs the narrating of the story." She also stated that the writing is "heavy handed." Kellerman stated Green "writes with great good humor and has a deep understanding of the the highs and lows of adolescence."

Style
Critics have noted the orignal format of Looking for Alaska the chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days 'before' and 'after'. Publisher weekly noted "the chapter headings have a foreboding countdown--'ninety-eight days before,' 'fifty days before'"" Sieruta commented "the narrative concludes with an essay"

Awards
Looking for Alaska received multiple awards. Reading Today "stated the book won in 2006 the Michael L. Printz award." Cooper noted Green "has received starred reviews from the bulletin for the Center of Children's Books and SLJ."

Themes
There are numerous themes in Looking for Alaska. The Register -Guard commented "this is a story of friendship, coming of age and life lessons," but Bennett stated that the theme was about "first love and self discovery. Although Sieruta noted that the book was about survivor guilt.

Adaptations
Looking for Alaska has been adapted into an audiobook. Beauregard noted "that when a novel is available in audio, it often means the book has received a lot of buzz and the story is engaging." Kellerman added " Woodman's fully voiced reading is outstanding. His romanian accent for Lara and his interpretation of the elderly teacher Mr.Hyde are excellent."

Background
John Green used many of his own life experiences in his novel Looking for Alaska. Cooper noted " the novel is based on a an incident that occurred at John's boarding school in Alabama."

Plot
Miles "Pudge" Halter, a friendless teenager, moves from Alamaba to attend Culver Creek boarding school as a junior, looking for the Geat Perhaps. There he meets the Colonel, his roommate, who shows Pudge around the school.

Alaska, a cheerful and rebellious teenager, and Colonel set up a pre-prank and hacked a computer and a sent out failing progress reports to all the weekend warriors, the snotty rich kids. Following the prank, Alaska told her friends that she watched her mom die. Her and Pudge make-out, even though she has a boyfriend. As a result of being drunk Pudge lets Alaska leave crying and like him drunk.

Due to driving drunk, Alaska dies in a car accident. Pudge and Colonel are taken by surprise because they were not expecting it. Things aren't the same at Culver Creek after her death. It caused her closest friends to go into depression. Pudge and Colonel asked around the school to try to get to the bottom of the situation, decode her death, and find out if her death was intentional.

Pudge and Colonel devote their time to understand why Alaska died. They start to feel guilty for letting her go. Pudge and Colonel find out that Alaska visits her mom's grave every year on her birthday. After her make-out session with Pudge, she realized that she forgot her mom. Pudge and Colonel find out that Alaska was going to her mom's grave to put flowers by it.

In Alaska's honor, Pudge and Colonel decide to do one last big prank. On speacker day, a day where the students pick a speaker for the whole school to listen to, Pudge invites a male stripper who strips for the whole school. After Pudge's year at Culver Creek, he finds the great perhaps.