Alex Woods is a natural target for school bullies: his mother’s the local clairvoyant, he’s epileptic and his hair’s been growing strangely since he was struck by a meteorite.
So when he’s stopped at Customs with a bag of marijuana, he has some explaining to do. No one’s going to believe that the drugs belonged to his only friend, the reclusive widower Mr Peterson.
And why didn’t Alex’s psychic mother see this incident coming? (Turns out he may have accidentally touched his mum’s tarot cards, which led to one unlucky client getting a most unfortunate reading.)
The Universe versus Alex Woods is Gavin Extence’s first book, and it’s the special friendship between two outcasts that forms the basis of his heart-warming story.
Alex and Mr Peterson bond over Mr Peterson’s collection of books by the late Kurt Vonnegut, a science fiction writer, sceptic and lifelong supporter of civil liberties, who is also quoted extensively throughout this novel.
The book isn’t short on scientific detail. There’s plenty
of information about meteors and epilepsy, and in-depth descriptions of Alex’s educational establishments
that the reader can’t help but feel makes the book almost
autobiographical in nature, though the author doesn’t dwell on Alex’s mother’s so-called psychic abilities.
The book does tackle an important controversial ethical issue, however, and the pace of the story picks up once it’s introduced. That, the male bonding and the meteorite could make this book a good buy for the teenage boy in your life.
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