'When you write a book, you have to let it go at some point. There, he reflected on why he's struggled to let go of this particular story - his first, but also his most personal. In a March vlog, Green took the cast and crew of Hulu's Looking for Alaska to visit his old school, which Miles' and Alaska's Culver Creek Prep School pretty much mirrors.

Somebody else on the FAQ asked a similar question - 'Did you know an Alaska' - to which Green simply answered that 'that is the rare question that is too personal.' Green also noted that his 'relationship with her was nothing like Pudge's relationship with Alaska' but that his 'Alaska' was someone he 'liked and admired a lot,' and he still doesn't 'feel reconciled to what happened.' On the FAQ page for Looking for Alaska, Green was asked if Alaska was based on someone he knew, to which he responded that he 'dislike answering question honestly.' He also said some of his old classmates were 'understandably upset' about the ways in which the novel reinvented real events, but that Alaska is indeed based on someone he knew at his boarding school.Įssentially, the defining event involving Alaska that happens in the book happened in real life, though obviously the particulars - the whys and hows - are different. 'She made us accomplices, Pudge, and we have to live with that for the rest of our lives,' Miles' friend says in the trailer.

It's difficult to discuss without spoiling anything for new viewers, but suffice it to say that an event occurs that shakes up Miles' (a stand-in for Green) friend group and becomes the focus of the story. And considering the events that unfold in the book, it's understandable that Green hasn't spoken much about the girl who inspired the character all those years ago.Įven if you haven't read the novel, the trailer for Hulu's new TV adaptation is pretty explicit about the fact that something life-altering happens to the mysterious Alaska Young. However, he's also been clear that many of the details have been changed or fabricated entirely. Author John Green has been vocal about the fact that his first novel, Looking for Alaska, draws heavily from his own experiences as a teen, and that the titular Alaska is based on a real person he knew at his Birmingham boarding school.

John green alaska