This is the second book I've read by John Green - the first was The Fault in Our Stars - and I'm officially in love. My favorite character is Pudge, mostly because it's narrated first-person from his perspective, so I understand him best, and his awkwardness is somehow endearing to me. Pudge's transformation from a guy who doesn't know what to do with his life to someone who knows his personal answer to suffering is what hooked me because I am what Pudge was. Somewhat. I think everyone has a little bit of before-the-defining-event-in-the-novel Pudge in them, in that they aren't sure what to make of their existence.

As Pudge says, “I thought that the way out of the labyrinth [of suffering] was to pretend that it did not exist, to build a small, self-sufficient world in a back corner of an endless maze and to pretend that I was not lost, but home.” In his pre-Culver Creek life, he lies to his parents about his lack of friends and even at Culver Creek, is mostly a follower. He plays pranks because his roommate the Colonel and his friends do. He's introduced to his friends by the Colonel, and eventually, Alaska. He drinks and smokes because his friends do. It's only later Pudge finds a sense of purpose.

Looking for Alaska seemed so real to me, even if I'm so removed from the world it describes. It's not quite a love story. I care about all of Pudge's friends, not just him and Alaska (who has a boyfriend during the entire novel who is not Pudge.) The Colonel is smart but his mother lives in a trailer the size of his dorm and hates Culver Creek's “Weekday Warriors”, the wealthy kids in the school, with a passion. Takumi feels left out by Pudge, the Colonel, and Alaska's pranks but his resentment dissipates in light of greater problems.

Alaska is the center of the novel. She's the axis around which the other characters revolve, and I think it's fitting Green left her an enigma. Real people can't read minds, but sometimes it's okay not to know everything about those you love. I love the takeaway: to quote Pudge, "We had to forgive to survive the labyrinth [of suffering]."