Looking for Alaska.

I’m just putting it out there – I love John Green. He is amazing, wonderful, talented and the way that his words resonate within your mind is magical. A few months ago I had my first taste of his writing, The Fault in Our Stars, and was captivated by the story and the way the words and their meanings pulled on every single one of my heart strings. Then I finished the book, I felt lost and was trying to find a book to match or surpass his writing, I felt like my relationship with John, I will call him John because I feel like his writing has broken down barriers between “us” and therefore we are friends, was by no means ready to be executed. So in my state of a TFIOS hangover I found another gem.

Ah, ‘Looking for Alaska’, you certainly did not disappoint. Although TFIOS will always be my favourite of his, Looking for Alaska supplemented my need and was very sufficient in doing so. The friendships, the fall-outs, the fun, the despair. Looking for Alaska had everything I was looking for. So much so I finished the book within a matter of days. Although my craving for John had been temporarily satisfied, upon finishing the book I felt the pang of emptiness return.

John Green has a way of transporting you in to the world of the character, as every author should do. But there’s something more with his writing, something captivating and yet soul destroying in equal measures. It fills you with empathy and love, yet still manages to leave you feeling empty at the end.

It’s an odd thing when you are engrossed in a book, and with how when you finish it you are left feeling a little more contented with your own life and often the lack of shit you have thrown at you, and on the other hand how you feel distraught that you don’t know what happens next. You don’t know if they live or die, are happy or sad, stay in love or fall out of it. But in the same breath, I guess that’s what makes reading so captivating – you can make believe what happens. 

The fault in our stars.

Have you ever read a book and been completely mesmerised by the story. In the past I have read novels and thought they were the “best book” I’d ever seen. However, last weekend I read “The fault in our stars” by John Green (one half of the very popular vlog brothers) and realised that everything that had ever passed before my eyes was nothing in comparison.

It’s a love story like no other; it has happiness, laughter, heartbreak and sadness – all of which are felt fully by the reader who is thrown amidst the characters lives. I feel that this book is something so personal that to write my version of what happens here simply would not do it justice, I would suggest that you read it for yourself – close to a rather large box of tissues I recommend.  

I will share the blurb; “Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist names Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.”

If that doesn’t already make your heart melt, then I have no clue what will. Upon reading books I like to look for quotes that I can bring to my own life and that mean more in context than those characters within the story. ‘The fault in our stars’ provided me with plenty;

“The marks humans leave are too often scars.”

“I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is inprobably biased toward the consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it-or my observation of it-is temporary?”

“Because you are beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence” 

“That's the thing about pain...it demands to be felt.” 

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” 

                                                                                                               

After finishing, I felt somewhat lost. I was searching desperately to find a book that would equal the magnificence. After a few days, I realised that I could not tear myself apart from John Greens heart-warming storytelling. As a result, I am now reading ‘Looking for Alaska’, I think it will have the exact effect on my soul.