Originally published at Here There Be Books. (Goes live 7/8/13)I picked this up from BEA 2013 mostly because of the cover-- also I thought it might have some sci-fi elements to it, which turned out to be wrong. However, despite the lack of scifi, I'm still glad I picked up The Universe Versus Alex Woods. PROS:1. It has an unusual protagonist! Alex was struck on the head by a meteorite, and it's affected his personality in interesting ways. (Or maybe he was like that before the meteorite?)2. It has unusual (and interesting) secondary characters! Alex has a lovely, supportive, slightly hippy-dippy mother. She runs a Wiccan magic shop and she's really awesome. Alex's friends, including the doctor who studied his meteorite, his grumpy, elderly next door neighbor, and a emo-goth schoolmate, also bring a lot of color to an already pretty colorful book.3. The story, while slightly annoying in that it's almost entirely a flashback, kept me eagerly reading. I kept wondering "what's next? How did THAT happen? etc."4. Potentially a crossover for YA/adult! That's always a pro, right? Right.5. Deals with difficult subjects (assisted suicide, for example) in a sensitive way, though there's a LOT of details so I don't think it's for everyone.CONS:1. As mentioned above, it does that thing where the first chapter is "now" and the rest of the book is "then." And then the ending goes back to "now." I find that really irritating, personally, but I know other people have no problem with it. 2. Alex, because of his unusual personality, sometimes comes across as really weird and/or unsympathetic. 3. A book full of unusual people can be "too weird" sometimes? I didn't really mind, though. I'd rather have a bunch of unusual people in my book than a bunch of boring ones.Overall, I very much enjoyed reading The Universe Versus Alex Woods. It's being published by Hachette's new fiction imprint which focuses on amazing new writers, and I can see why Alex Woods was chosen. It's an unique voice in a world filled with way too many vampires and not enough non-stalker/non-creepy weirdos.