Book Summary and Reviews of Looking For Alaska by John Green

Book Summary

First drink. First prank. First friend. First love.
Last words.

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called "The Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked #1 bestselling author John Green's arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Discuss the book's unusual structure. Why do you suppose Green chose this strategy for telling his story? How else might he have structured the same material?
2. Miles tells the story in his own first-person voice. How might the book differ if it had been told in Alaska's voice or the Colonel's? Or in the voice of an omniscient narrator?
3. The Colonel says "Everybody's got a talent." Do you?
4. Miles's teacher Dr. Hyde tells him to "be present." What does this mean?
5. John Green worked for a time as a chaplain in a children's hospital. How do you think that influenced the writing of Looking For Alaska?
6. What do you think "The Great Perhaps" means?
7. And how about Bolivar's "labyrinth?"
8. In the "Some ...