Based on his time at the private Indian Springs School, Green wrote the novel in order create meaningful young adult fiction.

Throughout the 'Before' section of the novel, Miles and his friends Chip "The Colonel" Martin, Alaska Young, and Takumi Hikohito grow very close.

"[10] Miles' new roommate, Chip "The Colonel" Martin, gives him the nickname "Pudge" and introduces the new boy to his friends: hip-hop MC Takumi Hikohito and Alaska Young, an intelligent, beautiful, and emotionally unstable girl.

However, Alaska later admits to Miles that she had told on both Marya and Paul to the dean, Mr. Starnes, nicknamed "The Eagle", to save herself from being expelled.

The gang celebrates a successful series of pranks by drinking and partying, and an inebriated Alaska confides about her mother's death from an aneurysm when she was eight years old.

[12][13] In an interview with Random House Publishing, Green recalled that newscasters stated that people would now view the world through the lens of either before or after 9/11.

[12] In a separate interview, Green comments that he wrote the novel intending it to be young adult fiction because he wished to contribute to the formation of his readers’ values in a meaningful way.

Pudge and Colonel want to find out the answers to certain questions surrounding Alaska's death, but in reality, they are enduring their own labyrinths of suffering, a concept central to the novel.

When their theology teacher Mr. Hyde poses a question to his class about the meaning of life, Pudge takes this opportunity to write about it as a labyrinth of suffering.

Literary scholar from the University of Northern British Columbia Barb Dean analyzes Pudge and the Colonel's quest for answers as they venture into finding deeper meaning in life.

In Barb Dean's chapter about the novel, she takes a closer look into Mr. Hyde's theology class where he discusses the similarity of the idea of hope between the founding figures of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

Dean notes that Green has said that he writes fiction in order to "'keep that fragile strand of radical hope [alive], to build a fire in the darkness.'"

[25] On the contrary, certain characters, like Dr. Hyde, the school's religious studies teacher, express positive beliefs in his students, while still maintaining an authoritative role within the classroom environment.

Positive reviews include comments on the relatable high school characters and situations as well as more complex ideas such as how topics like grief are handled.

[28][22] Reviews also highlight the unique way John Green wrote the novel as each chapter is divided chronologically leading to the climax of the plot.

[30] Looking for Alaska has been featured on the American Library Association's list of Frequently Challenged Books in 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2022 because it includes drugs, alcohol, and smoking; nudity; offensive language; it is also sexually explicit.

In a journal article titled "Although Adolescence Need Not be Violent..," scholars Mark A. Lewis and Robert Petrone comment on the novel's ability to portray loss in a format relatable to high-school readers.

[27] Similarly, Jayme K. Barkdoll and Lisa Scherff wrote in The English Journal, "With each page Green builds more than simply a surface-level coming-of-age novel; he envelops his readers with a vivid collection of magnetic characters, beautiful settings, intriguing facts, and powerful dilemmas that provide readers with an authentic and unique window into the lives of teenagers struggling to make sense of themselves and the world around them.

[35] Additionally, Looking for Alaska was a finalist in 2005 for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, which recognizes new and noteworthy writers.

[37][38] The book has been deemed unsuited for the age group because of its sexually explicit content, offensive language, and inclusion of drugs, alcohol, and smoking.

[38] In March 2012, The Knoxville Journal reported that a parent of a 15-year-old Karns High School student objected to the book's placement on the Honors and Advanced Placement classes' required reading lists for Knox County, Tennessee high schools on the grounds that its sex scene and its use of profanity rendered it pornography.

Looking for Alaska was defended by the school district because they felt it dealt with themes relevant to students of this age, such as death, drinking and driving, and peer pressure.

The school district originally received a complaint from a parent on the grounds of the presence of foul language and mentions of actions like smoking and suicide.

The district librarian looked into parental complaints along with reviews of the novel suggesting that it was best suited for high schoolers and made the decision to pull the book from the middle school library.

[41] In 2016 in Marion County, Kentucky, parents urged schools to drop it from the curriculum, referring to it as influencing students "to experiment with pornography, sex, drugs, alcohol and profanity.

One parent still insisted on getting the book banned and filed a Request for Reconsideration on the basis that Looking for Alaska would tempt students to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sex despite the decisions made after the challenge.

The video, entitled "I Am Not A Pornographer", describes the Depew High School challenge of Looking for Alaska and his frustration at the description of his novel as pornography.

Green argues that the misunderstanding of his book is the reason for its controversy, and urges people to understand the actual literary content before judging specific scenes.

[45] It had been reported that Paramount was putting the screenplay in review due to the success of the film adaptation of John Green's breakout novel, The Fault in Our Stars.

[citation needed] On February 27, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, screenwriters for Temple Hill Entertainment who had worked on adaptations for The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns, would be writing and executive producing for the film.