"How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?"

Simón Bolivar's last words. Alaska quotes this from a historical novel out of her stacks of probably thousands. She's only read a third of them, she's saving the rest for when she's "old and boring." Alaska asks Pudge what he thinks the labyrinth is, "is it life? is it death?"

This question is significant throughout the whole book. Even though it's my second time reading the book, I still don't know what the labyrinth is... maybe both. I guess once I finish it for the second time, I might know a little bit better.

...

At Culver Creek you don't have your normal, stereotypical cliques. First you have the Weekday Warriors who go home to Birmingham on weekends in their cool, "mansions" and then you have regular boarders/scholarship kids like Alaska, the Colonel and Pudge. The Weekday Warriors are stuck up and snooty little rich kids and the boarders are the notorious rebels. The groups have this rivalry and play pranks on each other every year. Most boarders like the Colonel despise the Weekday Warriors, however the Colonel is going out with one... but it's not Romeo and Juliet at all.

...

Sigh, still, I love John Green's writing:

"Later I walked toward the dorm circle beside Alaska. The cicadas hummed their one-note song, just as the had at home in Florida."