BACK COVER

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter’s whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the “Great Perhaps” (Francois Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event into herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

REVIEW

Green makes writing a true piece of art, brilliantly crafting the characters, scenes, and plot twists. He knows how to flawlessly write a character with depth without overdoing or overdramatizing it; a character we can befriend and whose emotions we believe, thought processes we can comprehend (or at least follow); a character we cry for, and cry for I did. Most books hold the heartbreak for the end–a tragic finale, something grand to leave the reader with–or begin with it–something to overcome, build the character up with. Green blindsided me with the heartache halfway through then prolonged it as Pudge fought to survive it. I forgot what a teenage crush felt like, never realized that as an adolescent our feelings seem all consuming, but Green effortlessly transported me back into that time and age; made me want to be a teenager again, one willing to take chances and get my heart broken. I hated my high school years but somehow Green had me wanting to relive them.