Looking for Alaska is the best John Green book adaption we’ve seen (so far)

Hulu’s Looking for Alaska series took an already nearly perfect story and somehow made it even better.

For every person in this world, there is a story that finds and resonates with them so unexpectedly and deeply that it leaves them changed forever by the time it ends. Looking for Alaska is that story for me.

I was a teenager when I read John Green’s debut novel for the first time, and I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t really “get it.” I understood the themes and I appreciated the characters. I felt emotions. But I finished the book and set it aside and didn’t really think about it again.

Years later, I picked up a 10th anniversary edition, remembering I’d liked the book and still being a fan of Green’s work overall. I didn’t know it was the book I needed at that time in my life. But that second time experiencing Looking for Alaska completely changed my life for the better.

It gave me permission to grieve — to search for meaning in my life, and for something greater than where I was headed. It made me fall in love with writing again. It reminded me how much stories matter — not just to me personally, but to the world at large.

I never thought I would get to experience this same story again outside of rereading the book on occasion. But then Hulu came along and filled and broke me all at once.

Well, it took about eight hours. But you get the idea.

Hulu’s adaption of the story is not “better than the book.” You can’t compare two different versions of a story in those kinds of absolutes, especially when putting a book and a show side by side. They are two separate projects, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

But looking at the other adaptions of John Green books we’ve gotten so far — The Fault In Our Stars and Paper Towns, both movies that were good but mostly forgettable — Looking for Alaska ranks higher than both combined.

While some who read the book may have found it unrelatable at points — Green did base it off his own personal experiences at boarding school and kept it very personal the whole way through — it’s no surprise that one of the best things this show did was find ways to make it relatable to everyone.

A story not limited by a first-person point of view almost always benefits in this way when brought to the big or small screen. Looking for Alaska is no exception. We get plenty of moments throughout the series where we see Alaska outside her circle of friends, and it helps the audience to see her differently.

And despite still being set in 2005 — a good choice, since it helps to capture the original story’s essence — it’s “modernized” at points, such as very briefly touching on relevant issues like  LGBTQ+ relationships and consent. (Showing a character asking “Is this OK?” is really all you need sometimes.)

But even with slight changes (very minimal, and most are additions to make the eight-hour story work onscreen), the show remains about as true to the book as fans hoped for. Even down to the fox hat and famous accompanying Takumi line.

This story never would have worked as a movie. There’s a reason it took over a decade for rights holders to figure out what to do with it. And it’s a good thing they waited for a service like Hulu to come along — a company that knew how to take stories that started off in print and transform them into eight hours’ worth of (almost) perfection.

And keeping it a limited series instead of trying to stretch it out beyond its source material? Whoever decided that deserves all the awards.

There is no way audiences would have been able to understand and fall in love with these characters — and mourn and feel with and for them — in less than three hours.

The reason this story is so emotionally charged is because it takes the time to show you who these characters are before the narrative breaks your heart.

By the time the show hits its most emotional point, you’re right there with the characters. It pulls you in. And it keeps you there until the bittersweet end.

It’s everything I hoped it would be. A book I loved not poorly, hastily adapted, but carefully and wonderfully crafted to celebrate the gift Green first gave us almost 15 years ago.

And we can’t talk about this series without mentioning the music. Because in addition to the covers of all the 2000s hits that really take you back to … well, wherever you were in 2005 … it’s a surprise to absolutely no one that Siddhartha Khosla (you may have heard his score on a little-known NBC drama called This Is Us) composed a score to accompany this show that brought it from “a good story” to “a masterpiece you’ll instantly love.”

I could go on for pages about this — not just the music itself but how it is used, and in some key instances, not used at all. But I will say that long after I finished the series, I continued to play the music. It’s playing in the background as I write this. And it’s beautiful. Captivating in that way that makes it almost impossible to turn off, yet haunting enough that I almost wish I could.

Just like the show. Beautiful and tragic and worth watching, even when it hurts.

Looking for Alaska will feel uniquely special to those who have read the book. But it’s meant to be experienced by anyone who wants to get to know this story for the first, but hopefully not the last, time.

If you are a fan of John Green’s work, watch it.

If you love the book, watch it.

If you’ve never heard of John Green or read the book before now, watch it. Then read the book. Then watch it again.

I can’t promise you’ll emerge from the experience without having to sacrifice a few tissue boxes. But if sad stories are something you can handle right now, give this one all your attention.

My bet is that once you see it, you’ll never forget it.

Looking for Alaska is now streaming on Hulu.