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Looking for Alaska is still one of the most important stories ever told

It's been 20 years, and it still holds up.
ByMeg Dowell|
Looking For Alaska is an 8-episode limited series based on the John Green novel of the same name. It centers around teenager Miles ÒPudgeÓ Halter (Charlie Plummer), as he enrolls in boarding school to try to gain a deeper perspective on life. He falls in love with Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth), and finds a group of loyal friends. But after an unexpected tragedy, Miles and his close friends attempt to make sense of what theyÕve been through.Alaska Young. Miles (Charlie Plummer) and Alaska
Looking For Alaska is an 8-episode limited series based on the John Green novel of the same name. It centers around teenager Miles ÒPudgeÓ Halter (Charlie Plummer), as he enrolls in boarding school to try to gain a deeper perspective on life. He falls in love with Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth), and finds a group of loyal friends. But after an unexpected tragedy, Miles and his close friends attempt to make sense of what theyÕve been through.Alaska Young. Miles (Charlie Plummer) and Alaska

I reread my favorite books the way many people rewatch their favorite movies and TV shows. You can say there isn't enough time for it, but some stories are just too important not to revisit on a regular basis. John Green's Looking for Alaska is "that" book for me.

The novel turned 20 years old earlier this week on March 3, and while I could and really wanted to write an entire piece complaining about how I wanted a special 20th anniversary edition of the book that didn't look very similar to the 10th anniversary edition, it's much more interesting at this moment to reflect on why this book is still so important. Arguably more important than Green's many other books, but don't cancel me for saying that. Hear me out.

This is more than just a book about a teenage boy who goes off to boarding school and falls in love. This is a story about grief, discovering the many different forms of love that can exist between people, and how life's greatest tragedies are not a lesson, but instead a memory we are forced to carry with us for the rest of our lives.

I did not fully grasp the depth of this book when I first read it as a young teenager. I hadn't experienced the level of grief these characters had, or at the very least hadn't begun to process it. Only after that changed did I revisit this book, and that's when I realized young adult books really are some of the most formative stories for those coming of age in a world they often do not feel they fit neatly into.

You might argue that this is a book written by a man, with the main character being a teenage boy -- how is that relatable to the rest of us? Well, it's Alaska's story just as much as it is Pudge's. When you venture out into the world, you meet new people -- and sometimes that comes with heartbreak. Sometimes, even when you're young, the things that happen to you stay with you whether you want them to or not. What's more relatable than that?

If I could read Looking for Alaska for the first time again, I would. It has been a while since I last read it, and I'll take this as a sign that it's time to read it again. Happy 20 years to a book that has shaped me as a writer and as a human being. May its last words stay with you, and may you be inclined to read it again and again just as I have.

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