Looking for a Meaning

Recently I have read a novel called Looking for Alaska. The book was very similar to another book I had read over the summer: The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The two books focus around a group of teenagers who are not the most popular and find their place with a group of like-minded people. They also both end in some form of a tragedy. In Looking for Alaska Alaska dies in a mysterious car accident and in Perks Charlie turns out to be a mental patient. The main difference between these books is within their similar endings. In Perks, there is a resolution and you know what happens. You figure out that all along he was writing to himself from the institution after his mental breakdown. But, in Alaska's story you are left kind of searching for a meaning behind it. At some points I think maybe it was suicide, but then as I think about it more I do not really know at all. When you read the novel, you begin to identify with Alaska and believing that she killed herself contradicts what you believed. I really enjoyed this novel, but the ending threw it off for me. I think that I fully enjoy a book when it comes to a complete end. I need a final resolution. This novel did not have a concrete ending and I think that turned me off. The novel taught me something new about myself in a way. I learned that I really enjoy books that have a resolution and am not a fan of those books that make you devise your own ending. But, I would recommend this book to anyone because of the great story of a group of teenagers that are a little quirky but real. It is a fresh take on how life really happens for people that are completely different from you, or that you can identify with.