Looking for Alaska by John Green

This is the second book of Mr. Green’s that I read and I enjoyed this book more than his last.  That said, I do have a big issue with this book and that it glorifies smoking.  I want to get that right out of the way.  I deplored this aspect of the book.  I don’t smoke and I don’t think we should ever craft an illusion that smoking is cool. I get it.  Kids smoke.  And that’s the story Green wanted to tell, and it is a genuine point of view.  But I hated it.  Smoking is not cool and to have a character start smoking to fit in is dumb.  Yes, it’s believable and true to life but it really rubbed me the wrong way.  Now that I’ve got that out of the way . . . what a memorable story about growing up and learning the importance of living in the moment and appreciating every aspect of it.  Miles Halter moves to a boarding school and quickly finds close friends and begins a series of pranks they hope will make them legends at their school.   His two closest friends are his roommate Chip Martin “the Colonel” and Alaska Young, a girl he quickly falls for. What makes this book work is that you really get to know these characters and really feel their joy and their pain.   The mystery that developed in the third act is not that mysterious in that it was obviously what happened, I still enjoyed the story.  Grade: B+