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136 Days Before (Pages 3-5)
Miles Halter, a high school student, plans to attend a boarding school, Culver Creek, for his junior year, so his parents throw him a going away party. Only two acquaintances show up for the party. After the “friends” leave, Miles’s mother expresses concern that he wants to go to boarding school because he has no friends. Miles retrieves a biography of François Rabelais and quotes the poet to explain to his parents that his desire to go away for school is about “seeking the Great Perhaps.” -
128 Days Before (pages 6-21)
Miles’s parents drop Miles off at Culver Creek. He meets his roommate, Chip Martin. Miles tells Chip that he memorizes people’s final words. Chip instructs Miles to call him “The Colonel” and he gives Miles the nickname “Pudge.” Chip describes two distinct groups within the social structure of Culver Creek to Miles: regular boarders such as himself, and those he calls “Weekday Warriors” because they are rich kids that go home to their parents’ mansions every weekend. -
127 Days Before Night Time (Pages 21-29)
Later that night, as Miles sleeps, several boys come into his room and shake him awake. The boys get Miles to the lake, they tape his arms and legs together, tell him to not be friends with Chip, and throw him into the lake. Miles manages get out of the lake without drowning. Livid, Miles goes back to his room. Chip does promise Miles to get revenge for the actions of the other boys. -
127 Days Before: Day time (Pages 21-29)
When Miles asks Chip about Alaska the next day, Chip tells him that he should not be so nosy. But he does tell Miles that Alaska has a boyfriend and that she is from a small town in Alabama called Vine Station. The "Eagle" stops by to welcome Miles and warn him to behave. At lunch, Chip introduces Miles to his friend Takumi and others. Miles learns, tattling on other students is considered unacceptable behavior at Culver Creek and those who do so are universally despised by the student body. -
126 Days Before (Pages 29-34)
Miles wakes up to find Chip declaring war against whoever threw Miles in the lake, and because Chip discovered they had also peed in his shoes. Miles is relieved to have class with Alaska, Chip, and Takumi. After Dr. Hyde enters the room, Miles finds out it will not be an easy class, but he is intrigued because he wonders if this class will help answer Alaska’s question about the nature of the labyrinth and the way out of it. -
122 Days Before (Pages 34-38)
After the last class of his first week at Culver Creek, Miles finds Chip in their room getting ready for a date with Sara, his girlfriend. Sara arrives at their dorm and argues with Chip, leading him to decide to not go out with her. Chip drinks vodka mixed with milk until he gets a call from Sara, who yells at him and says that the Weekday Warriors are angry because they believe that it was he who ratted out Paul and Marya, getting them expelled. -
110 Days Before (Pages 38-44)
As Miles is in religion class, Dr. Hyde sees Miles staring out the window, he tells him to leave his class. In solidarity, Alaska leaves with him. When Chip and Takumi join them after class, Alaska walks away mad that Takumi and Chip did not leave class, too. They follow her to the “smoking hole” to smoke and talk about getting revenge on the Weekday Warriors. Alaska finishes her cigarette quickly. Miles asks her why she smokes so fast, she says that she smokes to die. -
109 Days Before (Pages 44-49)
Chip insists that he and Miles go to the basketball game even though Miles doesn’t like sports. While at the game, one of the Weekday Warriors that tossed Miles in the lake sits with them and asks for a truce, saying that he says he thinks they are even. Chip and Miles refuse. As the basketball game progresses, Chip begins leading increasingly more derogatory chants against the opposing team. He is thrown out of the game, extending his streak of being thrown out to 37 consecutive games. -
108 Days Before (page 50)
The next day, the Old Man asks Miles to stay after class. He asks Miles if he enjoys the class and tells him he needs to be present with whatever is in front of him. Miles agrees with the Old Man. -
101 Days Before (Pages 50-52)
Miles notices the weather beginning to cool on the first day of October. In class, Alaska invites him to study at McDonald’s over lunch. Alaska drives, taking Miles, a sophomore named Lara, and some other friends. Alaska intentionally fills the car so that Lara has to sit on Miles’s lap. While at McDonald’s, Alaska talks to another student about smoking cigarettes versus smoking marijuana. Alaska defends her cigarette habit by saying she may die young, but at least she will die smart. -
100 Days Before (Part 1) Pages 52-54
Miles asks Alaska about her name, she sits close to him and grabs his hands to tell him the story. Her father wanted to name her Mary Frances Young, but her hippie mother wanted to name her Harmony Springs Young. Her parents made her legal name Mary, but they let her pick her own name when she turned seven. She picked the name Alaska. Also, the state of Alaska is far from her hometown—and she wants to be far from her hometown as well. -
100 Days Before (Part 2) Pages 52-54
Alaska confides that she wants to teach disabled children when she is older. Feeling close to her, Miles leans in to kiss Alaska, but Alaska pulls away. She begins to say that looking to the future is like nostalgia because it is a way for people to escape the present. She compares dreaming about the future to “escaping the labyrinth” and says she isn’t going to imagine the future, but instead just live it. When Miles responds that he does not get her, Alaska replies that he never will. -
99 Days Before (Pages 55-46)
Miles, Alaska, Chip, and Takumi go to the lake to smoke on Sunday. The Eagle finds them smoking. They are told to report to the Jury, a student body disciplinary system, the next day. -
98 Days Before (pages 56-58)
Miles, Alaska, Chip, & Takumi report to the Jury, (12 students who determine punishments). Alaska says she is nervous because it is her 7th time being caught smoking and she is worried about upsetting her dad. Chip advices Miles not to talk. Chip and Alaska take the blame for smoking and Takumi makes it clear that he nor Miles smoked. Chip & Alaska are given 10 work hours doing dishes. Miles & Takumi are only given a warning. Miles asks why they protected him and Takumi, but no one explains. -
89 Days Before (Pages 59-60)
Alaska spends time in Miles and Chip’s room and announces to Miles that they have found a girlfriend for him. She asks Miles what he thinks of Lara. Chip makes comments about Lara’s breasts and Alaska yells at him for objectifying women. Alaska tells Miles that Lara thinks he is cute. Alaska makes plans to arrange a group date involving herself and her boyfriend Jake, Chip and Sara, Miles and Lara, and Takumi. -
87 Days Before (Pages 60-66)
Jake comes to hang out with Alaska. Miles watches Jake & Alaska with jealousy. When the 7 go to the basketball game, Alaska keeps Miles from sitting next to Lara. Chip disturbs the peace at the game by making a joke about The Beast's girlfriend. Miles & Takumi try to escape the gym. The Beast throws a ball that hits Miles, causing him to hit his head. Miles gets dizzy. Lara joins Miles outside and he vomits on her. Miles and Lara spend the rest of their date at the ER. Chip Breaks up with Sara. -
84 Days Before (Pages 66-68)
A rainstorm comes and Miles continues with his classes and his studying. Chip spends more time in their room drinking his milk and vodka mixture because he is melancholy about his breakup with Sara. Miles has not talked to Alaska or Lara since the disastrous date. Miles asks Alaska if something is wrong when he sees her, but she refuses to answer because she is not in the mood to answer questions. -
76 Days Before (Pages 69-71)
In religion class, Chip tells Miles that he is now over Sara because he remembers how awful they could be to each other. When Dr. Hyde comes in, he gives the class the final paper prompt. Each student must write about “the most important question that humanity must answer,” and then examine how the major religions of the world attempt to answer that question. After class, Miles and Chip see Alaska. Furious, Alaska yells that the Weekday Warriors have flooded her room with water. -
67 Days Before (Pages 71-74)
Takumi tells Miles that it was Alaska who ratted out Marya & Paul. Takumi explains that Alaska said that the Eagle caught her sneaking out. Takumi figures out that she told on them to avoid punishment. Chip doesn’t know. Takumi says that Chip & Alaska will include them in the prank they planned to get revenge for the flooding her room and warns him that he cannot snitch if caught. Takumi says that Chip & Alaska protected them when they got caught smoking to show how they should protect friends. -
58 Days Before (Pages 74-80)
Miles wakes up in his room to Alaska playing one of his video games. She tells Miles that she knows Takumi told him about her ratting out Marya. Alaska convinces Miles to stay at school over Thanksgiving break instead of going home so she has someone to spend time with over the break. Miles agrees and calls his parents, gaining their approval. When Chip learns that Miles intends to stay with Alaska, he tells Miles not to get in a relationship with Alaska. Miles realizes that Chip is right. -
52 Days Before (Pages 80-82)
Over break, Miles and Alaska are alone. She provides wine. Miles is nervous about drinking and breaking rules, but he and Alaska drink the wine as she reads a novel. Miles thinks about telling her he loves her, but Alaska interrupts his thoughts by bringing up the quote about the labyrinth. She tells Miles that the labyrinth is not about living or dying, but about getting out of suffering. She tells him that suffering is universal and it is the one thing all religions are worried about. -
51 Days Before (Pages 82-85)
Alaska yells at Miles’s door to wake him up and they sneak into the unoccupied rooms of the Weekday Warriors. Alaska encourages Miles to look through the rooms to discover what these guys love in order to figure out the best way to prank them. Alaska determines that they love their hair and contemplates how they can acquire industrial-strength blue dye. -
49 Days Before (Page 85-88)
On Monday, the first real day of the Thanksgiving break, Miles and Alaska decide to look for porn in the unoccupied dorm rooms. They mostly find magazines, but when they find a video, they go to the school TV room. While they watch the video, Alaska tells Miles her thoughts about sex and complains about the objectification of women. Alaska suddenly gets tired and falls asleep. Miles puts his hand on her back and thinks about being close to her in a non-sexual way. -
47 Days Before (Pages 88-92)
The day before Thanksgiving, Miles asks Alaska to drive him to McDonald’s for lunch. As they are walking to Alaska’s car, Chip drives up and invites them to his home for dinner. Chip tells them that his mother told him to invite them and apologizes for living in a small trailer. Alaska responds that she is poor too. Miles is surprised that the trailer is actually so small that Chip has to sleep in a tent outside. Alaska and Miles stay the night and share the bed. Nothing happens. -
46 Days Before (Pages 92-93)
On Thanksgiving Day, Miles appreciates Chip’s mother’s cooking and thinks that the food is the best of any Thanksgiving he has ever had. They go around the table and they each say what they are thankful for. Miles is thankful for friends on Thanksgiving. Alaska is thankful for her best Thanksgiving in a decade. Chip is thankful for his mother & his intelligence. Chip’s mother is thankful for both Chip and her practical needs being met. Miles falls asleep, content, on the ride back to the school. -
44 Days Before (Pages 93-97)
Miles rides with Alaska to the store where she buys cigarettes, wine, & vodka. Later, Alaska shocks Miles by showing up at his room sobbing & asking why she screws up everything. She puts herself in his arms. Miles asks Alaska if she does things (such as exposing Marya) because she is scared. Alaska says being scared is no excuse. When Miles asks if she is scared because she doesn’t want to go home, she replies that she has no home. Miles tries to comfort her and tells her everything is okay. -
Christmas (Pages 96-97)
Everyone at Culver Creek, including Miles and Alaska, go home for Christmas break. Miles receives “grown-up gifts” like a nice watch and a new wallet. He spends most of the break studying. His parents feel guilty about not spending Thanksgiving with him and apologize repeatedly. He goes back to school thankful that he has a family. -
8 Days Before (Pages 97-99)
The first day back from break, Alaska begins talking about having a pre-prank as well as a regular prank to get back at the Weekday Warriors. Alaska and Chip explain to Miles that a pre-prank will make the other boys not expect the actual prank. They tell him the three of them along with Takumi and Lara will meet at a barn on campus that weekend to pull off the prank. Chip and Alaska talk about their plans but they don’t give Miles any details, which Miles hates. -
4 Days Before (Pages 99-100)
Miles packs his bag for the Barn Night prank. Chip convinces the Eagle that Miles and Takumi are going to his home over the weekend as a cover for their absence from the campus. They meet with Alaska and Lara at the barn to go over the three-part prank, which will include lighting fireworks to distract the Eagle, putting blue dye in the Weekday Warriors’ hair products, and sneaking onto the Eagle’s computer to send out fake bad grade reports to the Weekday Warriors’ parents. -
3 Days Before (Pages 100-111)
Chip and Alaska plan the prank, but Chip will only tell Miles that the prank is to be called “Barn Night” and that he should pack for a couple days. While they are planning, Miles uses the time to study for his exams and write his religion paper. For the paper, Miles writes that religions talk about the afterlife because people cannot bear to believe that there is nothing after death. -
2 Days Before (Pages 111-123)
Miles, Alaska, Chip, Takumi, and Lara wake up in the barn and spend the day there hiding out since they are all supposed to be off campus. As the day progresses, they begin drinking. Alaska makes up a drinking game where they take turns telling stories about the best and worst days of their lives. The best storyteller doesn’t take a drink. -
1 Day Before (Pages 123-124)
Miles, Alaska, Chip, Takumi, and Lara wake up in the barn hungover and get ready to go back to their dorms to complete the fictional story of all five of them being away for the weekend. They check in with the Eagle to show him that they have returned and then go to their rooms to sleep off their hangovers. -
The Last Day (Later On) Pages 125-133
Miles hangs out with Chip & Alaska. Chip & Alaska drink but Miles doesn't. Alaska & Miles play truth or dare. Alaska dares Miles to kiss her. He does. She gets tired and she says "to be continued". Miles tells her he loves her, but she is asleep. Later, Alaska leaves the room and quickly comes back in. She wakes up Miles & Chip, and she yells that she forgot and she has to go. Miles & Chip set off fireworks to distract the Eagle from seeing/hearing Alaska leave. After, they go back to sleep. -
The Last Day (Mid Day) Pages 125-133
Kevin, one of the Weekday Warriors visits Chip & Miles’s dorm to ask for a truce. Chip declines the offer. Miles spends the afternoon with Lara and they make out since they find that they don’t have much to talk about. this time successfully. Lara and Miles engage in intercourse. Afterward they are embarrassed and decide to study, but Miles changes his mind and leaves. -
The Day After (Pages 137-143)
The Eagle wakes Miles & Chip & tells them they need to go to the gym because something terrible has happened. The Eagle announces that Alaska was killed in a car accident the night before. Miles insists that she is playing a prank, but the Eagle confirms that she is dead. The Eagle tells Miles that she drove into a police car. Miles thinks about him & Chip helping her leave when she was drunk & feels responsible for her death. Miles reflects that he will never know her last words. -
2 Days After (Pages 143-148)
Miles calls his parents to tell them about his friend’s death. They sympathize with him and ask if he want to come home, but he tells them he wants to be at school. Miles returns to his room and finds Chip memorizing country capitals. Chip, visibly upset, grabs his almanac and tells Miles he is going for a walk. Friends, including Lara, come by to check on Miles, but Miles wants to be alone. Miles has a nightmare about Alaska and wakes up wishing Chip would return from his walk. -
4 Days After (Pages 148-150)
Chip returns from his walk & tells Miles that he walked 42 miles before walking back. He does not sleep because he has nightmares about Alaska & has begun to forget what she looked like. Miles pulls out a yearbook to remind Chip what Alaska looked like. They recall her moodiness. Chip tells Miles that he did not try to stop Alaska from leaving on the night of the accident because he did not want to deal with her drama. Miles says that he let her drive away drunk because she asked him to. -
6 Days After (Pages 150-152)
Miles, Chip, Takumi, & Lara drive together to Alaska’s funeral in her hometown. They take back roads to avoid the spot where Alaska died. They enter the funeral home & meet Alaska’s father. Miles mourns that he will not see Alaska again because the casket is closed. He feels remorse for causing her father pain by helping her drive away when she shouldn’t have been driving. Both Chip and Miles kneel by her casket to apologize to her & again Miles tells her he loves her. -
7 Days After (Pages 152-157)
The Eagle asks Chip if he set of fireworks to help Alaska leave. Chip also learns that Alaska’s aunt plans to clean out her room so they should go through her room in case there is anything there that they want to keep as a memento of her.
Miles finds a note Alaska left inside of as book. She wrote, “Straight and fast” in the book margins as her answer to the question “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?” The boys begin to question why Alaska did not swerve to avoid the police car. -
8 Days After (Pages 157-159)
Culver Creek classes resume and the Old Man explains that he understands that the content of his religion class has likely become personal because of Alaska’s death. He writes Alaska’s question from the previous semester about escaping the labyrinth of suffering on the board and asks the class how they feel. Chip quietly vents his anger to Miles that other people are mourning Alaska when Chip does not think they actually cared about her when she was alive. -
9 Days After (Pages 159-161)
Chip tells Miles that he has a theory about Alaska killing herself. He theorizes that Alaska left the room after making out with Miles, got into a fight with Jake about cheating on him, drove off campus to meet Jake to apologize, and ultimately saw crashing into the police car as an end to the labyrinth of suffering. Miles refuses to believe that Alaska would do that & tells Chip that he does not want to find out what actually happened. -
13 Days After (Pages 161-165)
Miles & Chip interview the officer who saw the crash. He informs them that Alaska ran into the car without slowing down or swerving. The officer explains that when he arrived at her car, she was already dead. Miles gives up hope that he will ever know Alaska’s last words. He informs them that her blood alcohol level was 0.24, and that white tulips were scattered throughout the car. Chip leaves more convinced that Alaska killed herself. Miles still wants to stop investigating but helps anyway. -
14 Days After (Pages 165-169)
Chip & Miles research warning signs for suicide & find that Alaska only exhibited 2 of the 13 possible warning signs they found. They argue about Alaska’s intent, acknowledging the oddity of choosing to drive six miles off campus to kill herself. Miles admits the reason he does not want to investigate whether Alaska killed herself is because it makes him hate her. Miles resents the thought that, if Alaska did kill herself, he & Chip are accomplices, not just part of an accident. -
20 Days After (Pages 169-173)
Chip informs Miles that he plans to call Jake to see if something happened between him & Alaska to set her off. Miles refuses to talk to Jake, and Chip grabs him by the sweater as he yells at him, saying that Miles’s obsession with his fantasy of Alaska and the love affair he wanted to have with her is what’s making him avoid finding out what really happened. Chip and Miles apologize to each other and Chip decides to postpone calling Jake. -
21 Days After (Pages 173-175)
Dr. Hyde discusses heaven & hell in class, & Miles thinks about the afterlife. He cannot imagine Alaska anywhere but dead, & thinks heaven is a made-up place. Takumi mentions that Miles seems to be avoiding Lara and asks if Miles and she are still dating. Miles answers that he does not think so. Takumi begins to say something else but changes his mind. He acknowledges that grief sucks. -
-27 Days After (Part 1) Pages 175-182
Chip & Miles come up with a plan that includes alcohol and the Eagle’s breathalyzer. When they ask Takumi for alcohol, he demands to know whatever is going on because he is tired of Chip & Miles being secretive. Chip promises to tell Takumi everything starting the next day. Miles & Chip leave to get the breathalyzer. Miles distracts the Eagle by telling him his worries about Chip not attending class. Meanwhile, Chip sneaks into the Eagle’s house & steals the breathalyzer. -
27 Days After (Part 2) Pages 175-182
Chip drinks alcohol that they got from Takumi to match the 0.24 alcohol level Alaska had when she died. While Chip drinks, the Eagle enters the dorm. Miles distracts the Eagle from noticing the drinking by smoking a cigarette & having Chip pretend to cry. The Eagle requires Miles to report to the Jury the next day. Chip drinks until the breathalyzer reads 0.24. Based on Chip's ability to react, Alaska would have been able to swerve around the police car. He also says she may have fallen asleep. -
28 Days After (Pages 182-184)
In class, Miles wonders about the significance of the tulips the police found in Alaska’s car. Miles returns to his room to find Chip describing the night of Alaska’s death to Takumi, except for the part about Alaska and Miles kissing. The three of them speculate why Alaska left that night. When Chip decides to call Jake, Takumi and Miles ask him not to share any unnecessary details from the call with them. -
29 Days After (Pages 184-188)
Chip calls Jake to ask about the night Alaska died and finds out that Alaska & Jake did not fight & that she called to celebrate their anniversary. Alaska told him she was doodling before suddenly exclaiming that she needed to leave & would talk to him later. Miles confesses to Takumi that he kissed Alaska & she had told him that their kissing would be continued. They speculate that her planning to be with both Jake and Miles in the future means that she probably did not intend to kill herself. -
37 Days After (Pages 188-189)
Miles literally runs into Lara and he tells her he is sorry. His apology is the first thing he has said to her in a month and he feels bad about it. However, since he is still torn over wanting Alaska, he does not care enough to keep talking to Lara after he apologizes. -
45 Days After (Pages 189-191)
Miles and Takumi find out that they both did poorly on a math test—since they didn’t have Alaska’s help studying for it. Joking about their bad grades, they drive to the liquor store with Chip to buy cigarettes. Miles has no problem buying cigarettes despite his age. -
46 Days After (Pages 191-195)
Takumi convinces Miles to talk to Lara by pointing out that he is being unkind to her & that Alaska would not have approved. Miles goes to Lara’s dorm room to apologize & she forgives him. He tells her everything they know about Alaska’s death, except for the fact that he and Alaska had made out before she died. Miles, Chip, Takumi, & Lara talk about Alaska and conclude that they have reached a dead end in their quest to figure out what Alaska was thinking the night she died. -
51 Days After (Pages 195-197)
Miles thinks about a story he read for religion class. In it, the character reached enlightenment with one moment of realization. Miles wonders if the same thing will happen to him. He realizes that he, just like Alaska, will cease to exist one day, and then at some point in the future no one will even know that they existed. Miles realizes that the reality of Alaska is slipping away from him & decides that he wants to keep investigating to figure out if she loved him. -
62 Days After (Pages 197-199)
Miles wakes up late and decides to call his parents. While his mother talks, he notices daisies doodled next to the payphone. Miles thinks it must have been what Alaska was doodling when she was on the phone with Jake so he hangs up and excitedly shows Chip his discovery. Miles suggests that she doodled the flower, which reminded her of whatever she had forgotten. Chip acknowledges that his theory could be true, but they still don’t know what she remembered. -
69 Days After (Pages 199-200)
Chip and Miles decide they should do a prank in honor of Alaska. Chip tells him that Alaska had planned a prank that was so good that they decided to save it for their senior prank. Chip tells Miles it is called “Subverting the Patriarchal Paradigm,” and that it is worthy of her memory. -
83 Days After (Pages 200-201)
Chip returns from spring break with detailed plans for executing the “Subverting the Patriarchal Paradigm” prank. Chip reviews the plan with Miles, Takumi, and Lara. -
84 Days After (Pages 201-203)
Miles calls his father to get his help in executing the prank. Miles’s father agrees to the plan. Later, Miles and Longwell Chase, the student body president, arrange for the Eagle to call Miles’s father, who is posing as the fictional psychologist. After the call, the Eagle approves the speaker, unaware that Dr. William Morse is not real. -
102 Days After (Pages 203-210)
Chip & Miles execute the next part of the plan by hiring a male stripper to appear on Speaker Day. The plan is executed.
The Eagle quickly puts an end to the music an dancing, but everyone is amused. Everyone says it was Alaska’s prank. Later that night, the Eagle stops by Chip and Miles’s dorm to warn them never to pull a prank like that again, as well as to acknowledge his amusement since the prank was clearly Alaska’s idea. -
114 Days After (Pages 210-211)
Takumi asks Miles if he remembers January 10th. Miles remembers because that was the day Alaska died. Takumi points out that it was also the day after the anniversary of Alaska’s favorite memory with her mother on January 9, 1997. They realize that Alaska’s doodles of flowers likely reminded her of her mother’s death, & she must have remembered that she had not visited the grave with white flowers like she usually did. The 3 friends realize why she left & why her car was filled with flowers. ++ -
118 Days After (Pages 212-214)
Chip, Miles, Takumi, & Lara give up searching for information about Alaska’s death after they understand why she probably left that night. Miles appreciates that it gives him a new capacity to discover the Great Perhaps. Chip and Miles decide that what they need for closure is to drive through the accident site like Alaska would have. -
119 Days After (Page 214)
Chip, Miles, Takumi, & Lara study for finals together. They miss Alaska and do not talk much about anything. -
122 Days After (Pages 214-216)
In religion class, the Old Man assigns the final paper. The question to answer for this paper is in response to Alaska’s paper from the first semester. Students have to answer how they, personally, will get out of the labyrinth of suffering. Chip and Miles discuss the topic back in their dorm and Chip admits that he briefly forgot about Alaska. He tells Miles that, even though he agrees that the only way out of the labyrinth is straight and fast, he picks the labyrinth over escaping. -
136 Days After (Pages 216-221)
Takumi finishes his exams early and leaves Chip and Miles a letter, explaining that he saw Alaska the night that she died. She told him that night that she was upset about her mother’s death and, like Chip and Miles, he let her drive away even though she was drunk. He apologizes for letting her leave, too, and apologizes for not telling them the whole truth sooner.