Good book amidst ridiculous smoking glorification for teens

Looking for Alaska by John Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like John Green. I like his books. I like his videos. I like his characters. However, the characters in this book who revolve more around the need to smoke than anything else are part of a bigger problem in teen fiction. We as writers have an opportunity to reach teens. It's a rare opportunity that we as parents barely have. Kids listen more to characters than they listen to us as parents, and when the characters they keep reading about are all smokers, and are pushing other new kids INTO smoking, and the new kids GIVE IN to the peer pressure of smoking, why not just have a damned coupon for cigarettes in the back of your book? It would help the kids not cut as much into their allowance when they go buy cigarettes. Obviously their allowances aren't very big, so that coupon could sure help them out. Less money on smokes, means more money on the books that tell them how cool smoking is! So it seems like a good idea for the author.

OK, rant over. I did like the book, and the characters were for the most part believable. I can't really say how I wish characters had gotten what they wanted without spoiling the ending. I definitely didn't see the ending coming, and that's good writing so I give Mr. Green his props. I'll continue reading his books, as long as he doesn't write any gateway books into characters that all think Heroin is cool.


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