Children all go through a pre-operational stage of thinking that is egocentric. The world revolves around them and their problems. This is not a slight on teenagers or children. We all go through it as we develop. Some people never outgrow it. So in this story we have a boy who is a high school junior at a boarding school. He makes some friends and meets a pretty girl named Alaska. He develops a huge crush on her. Then about five months after meeting Alaska and becoming friends with her, something tragic happens. After the tragedy, he spends the rest of the book in a self-centered circle of pity. It's all about HIM and how what happened to her affected HIM. The book is split into two sections labeled 'Before' and 'After', referring to before the tragedy and after the tragedy. The 'Before' section was tolerable, and even funny in parts, but Alaska is slightly annoying and was not really likable (to me). So when the tragedy happened, I didn't really care because I didn't really like her character. The protagonist, however, is a young boy who thinks this tragedy is all about him and some fantasy life he imagined with this girl. I repeatedly, in my head, said, "Get over it! You've only known the girl for five months and you didn't even know her that well. Why do you think it's all about you?"
So while the writing style was fine and easy to digest, the latter part of the story dragged on and bored me.
