I have a confession: I love Manic Pixie Dream Girls (MPDGs) and the Sad Mopey White Guys (SMWGs) that they inspire. I like Garden State (2004), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and (500) Days of Summer (2009). I didn’t even hate The Last Kiss (2006) or Elizabethtown (2005), the film from which the trope name originates. I know that the trope is problematic, but I can’t help myself.So when I thought Alaska Young fit the trope of MPDG, which was basically two seconds after she appears in the book, I got kind of excited. But as I read on, I started to really hate her character. She felt like a plot device so much more than any other MPDG character which is difficult to do since MPDGs by nature are basically plot devices.Perhaps my problem is that I haven’t read too many MPDGs, I mostly watch them. I have read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, and both female main characters in those novels could be categorized as MPDGs. But I read Stargirl as a child and therefore have trouble judging it without the filter of my nostalgia goggles. And I think Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a better book than Looking for Alaska and am therefore more willing to forgive its flaws. Also, Holly Golightly is a more interesting character (/idea) than Alaska Young.I have another confession: I accidentally spoiled the end of the book for myself through a careless google search. However, I had two guesses about what was going to happen in the book, and one of those guesses was right. I mean, the book is divided into before and after. Clearly some big event is going to occur between the two sections.That said I do not like the end of the novel, and it has nothing to do with the spoiler that I read. I don’t care at all about Alaska’s character, and she is the catalyst for all the action at the end of the novel. Also the prank at the very end of the novel has way too big a buildup and little to no payoff. Note: anytime anyone wants to call something the best or the greatest, it better actually be the best or the greatest. The best and greatest way to make something the best and greatest is to not call it the best and greatest from the get go but rather to let others call it that.Those are my two main problems with the novel, and they’re pretty big problems. I feel pretty meh about the rest of the book. The one aspect I like the best is the setting. The space the characters occupy feels real, even if the characters themselves are always doing something ridiculous. I also don’t like YA fiction that feels too modern, and Looking for Alaska feels really timeless.*This xkcd comic is so on the nose.
