Looking for Alaska is definitely a book with very perplexing themes and ideas and a book itself. I must also admit that it was kind of difficult to understand at times. throughout the first half of the book, it was counting down days 'before' and for a reader who has never read the book before it doesn't make sense a whole lot. Beside the confusion that the book brought sometimes, it was very interesting how the author was able to write and bring to life characters similar to kids during this time. I think that that's why some students or people in general liked the book so much, because they were able to relate to parts of the book. The tragedy that occurred in the book regarding to Alaska Young, was very unexpected, but in ways it very much helped the formation of the themes and symbols. I believe that because the book brought sorrow and tragedy, yet it was still able to bring the good out of the situation, people were more attracted to the book. Like I said before, at the beginning of the book I didn't really understand where the book was going or what the point of the 'before' part was going. I think that it was very clever of the author to at first make it seem as if everything was alright and that together everyone was going to make it through high school and life was great, only to be thrown a snowball smack in the readers face in the 'after' part of the book. In the 'after' part of the book things made much more sense, yet things still seemed to be a mystery. Personally, I liked that the 'after' part where Pudge went searching to find the solution to the mystery. I think that through the 'after' part is where we really understand the reasons for the 'before' and where we also get the main themes and points of the book. Honestly at the beginning the book, it didn't really catch my attention, so much that I kind of found it boring at times. but as I got closer to 'after' part, things were starting to get interesting which kind of pulled me back into continue reading it. When I read the 'after' I didn't really know what to make out of it. I was kind of surprised that Alaska died (yet again John Green wrote it), but at the end it was really inspirational that Pudge was able to "let go" in a sense. I think that it might be very helpful for those who might be going through a loss or pain and heartache, because the book symbolizes a sense of hope and relief. What I got out of the book was that: it's okay to question things and it's okay to let go; that it's okay to move on and learn from the past. I believe that it will help many people in many ways.