Pudge is not quite satisfied with his uneventful live at home and decides to follow into his dads footsteps and go to a boarding school in Alabama to find, as he calls it, "the Great Perhaps".
In his new school he becomes fast friends with his room mate Colonel, a poor scholarship kid with a big personality, and Alaska, a lively but moody girl he immediately develops a crush on. Learning, drinking, smoking and pranks characterize the school days until one big event throws everything off course.

This book has strength and it's weaknesses for me.
The beginning feels very underwhelming. Pudge never becomes a very sympathetic character for me and I can't quite identify with him. He's a very beta person, letting his friends just pull him along as they want to. He starts smoking and drinking with them, even though he shows no inclination for it.
I can't stand Alaska either. She's very quirky, loud, obnoxious at times, very secretive. And she changes her moods in a flash. Pudge falls for her in an instant.
The book develops a soap opera kind of routine. I very much enjoy the Colonel and Takumi, even Lara. The pranks are fun at times, the snooping and the kids backstories, too. It has some funny moments, but it doesn't feel very deep or meaningful.

Then the book very suddenly shifts into serious mode. I thought some parts of it seemed well written, while others felt very much over the top, dramatized. The end then fades again into a very boring not much at all. There's some philosophical thinking, that I though was pretty expected and not exactly big revelations, but maybe it works better for teens.
The characters get distant again, just Pudge remaining, and as I said, I don't much care for him.

The book certainly is well written, but I didn't care for the up and down in lightheartedness and seriousness and the muddle of teenage drama.