Full of spoiler alerts.....
If I could bring one of the characters home to meet my family, I would bring Alaska Young strictly because I. Want. Answers. I've read a lot of books, and this is the only one that has kept me guessing from the first page. And that bugs me. So. I. Want. Answers. Just in case you didn't pick up what I was putting down.
From the start of the book Alaska has pretty much been a mystery to the main character 'Pudge'. Since Alaska got that phone call from her boyfriend and got in the car accident the Colonel and Pudge have been full of questions on what that phone call was about. Bringing Alaska home I would ask her three specific questions. 1) What was the phone call about? 2) Why is she so closely guarded and keeps herself such a secret? 3) What does she think of Pudge?
Ever since Pudge first met Alaska, he has had an infatuation with her. She is a mystery to everyone around her and she likes it that way. Pudge once told her that he doesn't understand her, and she replied "you never will". I wonder if she keeps herself a secret because she is such a deeply unhappy person or she just does it for her own entertainment. Finding out about the phone call would make the story make much more sense. But if she never got that phone call, the story would have surely had a different outcome. Maybe she did in fact break up with her boyfriend and want to be with Pudge? Or maybe the phone call reminded her that it was the anniversary of her mother's death and she had completely forgotten about it?
Question #3 is the one that has kept me awake a night. As a tangent I wasn't accepted into college yet, and and that didn't help the sleep situation any....
When it comes to Alaska, you can't pick up vibes. There is no foreshadowing on what comes next, or what she is thinking about. The girl can be high strung and full of life, or depressed and wanting to die. There is no middle ground. There is a strict line in between happy and sad for her. On the night of her death, she finally hooks up with Pudge, and at that point my immediate reaction was 'fan girling'. I immediately thought she was going to dump her boyfriend, get together with Pudge, have babies and all of that. But. When that phone call came, and Alaska never returned to Culver it was like getting my heart ran over.
In my experiences I have read a few John Green books. And in every one, you end up crying and reevaluating your life. In looking for Alaska, I am 'happy' to report that so far this book is looking no different.
