Synopsis

Miles Hunter is a lonely, boring kid from Florida who seeks his “great perhaps”. He believes that following his dad’s footsteps by attending Culver Creek in Alabama will lead him to a more interesting life: “But [self-protection from the outside world] only led to a lonely life accompanied by by the last words of the already dead, so I came here looking for a Great Perhaps, for real friends and a more-than-minor life” (Green, 219).

Green based Culver Creek off of his high school Indian Springs.
"At the edge of the lake, just before the sandy (and the Colonel told me, fake) beach, we sat down in an Adirondack swing" (Green, 16)

Not only is he unprepared for the hot weather, his new friends seem to be far from his “friends” at his old school. Chip Martin, or the Colonel, comes from a trailer park living poorly but happily with his mom. He gets into Culver Creek on scholarship and refuses to conform to the snobby ways of the of many rich kids, otherwise known as Weekend Warriors: “he wasn’t embarrassed of his mom at all. He was just scared that we would act like condescending boarding school snobs” (Green, 21).

Lastly, Alaska Young is not only Chip’s friend, but taken crush that he falls for. Alaska is unpredictable, moody and mysterious- she knows more about her friends than they know about her. They only find out what happened to her mother when she gets drunk: “‘Little kids [Alaska as a kid] can dial 911. They do it all the time. Give me the wine,’ she said, deadpan and emotionless’ (Green, 119).

Looking for Alaska is all about Miles’ friend group trying to find a way out of the labyrinth of life and who Alaska was. They accept Miles into their friend group quickly and show him the rule of Culver Creeks- never snitch. The Weekend Warriors blame the Colonel for ratting on their friend and pull pranks on them as revenge. Meanwhile, Miles is not only struggling to find a way to keep his marks in class but how to take a drag out a cigarette and find a way out of the labyrinth for Alaska in exchange she find him a girlfriend. Alaska and her friends pulls a series of pranks to get back at the Weekend Warriors for flooding her ceiling-high room of books or Life’s Library: “‘The whole place is soaking wet. My copy of The General in His Labyrinth is absolutely ruined.’ ‘Sorry, don’t worry, dude,’ he said, ‘God will punish the wicked. And before He does, we will” (Green, 70).

"My copy of The General in His Labyrinth is absolutely ruined"

After pulling off a variety of pyrotechnic and elaborate schemes, they all celebrate by getting wasted and playing a drinking game depicting their Best Day/ Worst Day. It’s then they find out why Alaska feels guilty for her mom’s death: “ ‘Why didn't you call 911?’ and trying to give her CPR, but by then she was plenty dead. Aneurysm. Worst Day, I win. You drink’” (Green, 119). The last day of their celebration and Alaska’s life, Alaska and Miles hook up, cheat on their significant others, promise to continue the next day and Miles admits his love for Alaska: “‘This is so fun,’ she said, ‘but I’m so sleepy. To be continued?’... As she slept, I whispered, ‘I love you Alaska Young’” ((Green, 130-1). That night, Alaska begs Miles and Colonel to distract the security so she can leave campus. They oblige and in her drunken state dies instantly in a car crash. They spend their time trying to figure out how and why she died, whether it was intentional or a drunken accident but the book ends with Miles finding his way out of the labyrinth: “ But that part of us [fearful of failure] greater the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail. So I know she forgives me and just as I forgive her” (Green, 220). Miles and his friends then spend the rest of their semester brainstorming and pulling senior pranks and trying to forget Alaska.