Looking for Alaska

I swear, all of the books I have been reading lately are from Mom's pile. It might begin to frustrate me if my pile of books doesn't start reducing in size, too. Something about the growing stacks, from two to three, is starting to bug me.

Also bugging me about this book is the setup. We have a geeky, six-foot kid who actively wants to go to private school because he has no friends in the public school he attends, who meets the most amazingly beautiful girl in the school, who we later learn is also attracted to him, and we are supposed to believe this setup?

If a six foot kid isn't immediately recruited to the basketball team, even in a private school, something is wrong. But the most unbelievable part is having the most attractive girl in the school being attracted to the book's protagonist who has exactly no friends in his previous school. Having no friends? No girls attracted to him, throwing themselves at him, wanting to date him? That's a hard suspension of disbelief to have. Just saying.

The book countdowns to the major event in the book, then counts up from said major event. It does that well for structure, but fails to convey the overwhelming heartbreak that is involved in said event. Not sure how else to explain how the second part felt superficial.

It's a good story, so for that reason I'd likely hand the book to a friend, though I wouldn't be worried about asking for the book back, or buying a second copy so that I had a version to loan. My copy will likely go into the Little Lending Library out front.