On Sale February 13, 2018
The premise was so original and compelling, I thought for sure I would love it. I ended up getting so frustrated with this book, that I was fuming with rage while reading it at one point. It took everything I had in me not to just DNF this sucker and be done with it. Nevertheless, I persisted until the very end.
I'll start with what I liked:
1. Multiple POVs - This story was told from 4 main perspectives, from all different ages. It's told from the perspectives of an elementary schooler, two high schoolers, and a parent (plus an alien at one point). It was like getting to read a Middle Grade, Young Adult and Adult book all at the same time. You don't know how much I appreciated getting the parent's POV. Something that I hate in YA is how little of the parental figures we get to see. Not only did we get a real live parent in this book, we also got to see what she's thinking. I hope that this is a trend that sticks!
2. The Originality - I thought that the alien parasite concept was so cool. Especially when I read that he took something from each of the three Vasquez siblings. From Hank, he took the use of his hands. From Ana, he took control of her eyes. From Milo, he took over his ears. Cool!
What I didn't like:
1. Confusion, Confusion and More Confusion - I thought the alien idea was cool beans. However, I felt that there was not enough backstory and explanation at the beginning in order for me to really get a grasp on what was happening. At first, I thought this was a good thing. I was strangely compelled, and wanted to keep reading in order to figure this thing out. However, as time went on, this just got more and more frustrating. By the 50% mark of the book, Luz the alien wasn't fully explained and I started to get mad. I felt like the book was stringing me along and wasting my time and I very badly wanted to eat my Kindle out of rage. I get that authors want to keep their readers interested in order for them to want to keep reading. I just don't think that this is the way to do it.
2. Offensive Language - I swear. A lot. But still, I feel like in YA there are a few words that are utter and complete NO-NOs. Two of these taboo words that I'm talking about are "retard" and "faggot." These words, and ones similar to them, are generously sprinkled throughout the book by a real homophobic character. There was also a supremely racist moment as a bonus. I just feel like there's no way that people aren't going to take offense to these things and that it should be pointed out. Maybe it would have been okay if the characters being called these names would have stood up for themselves, but they never really did. Which brings me to...
3. The Characters - Okay, let me first say that I can really tell that the author loves her characters like they are her own flesh and blood. It's obvious in her writing that she cares about them a lot. However, I don't really feel like she gave me any reason to care about them. This book was heavily character oriented (and barely even had a plot, imo), so you really need the characters to be lovable. These ones really weren't - not to me.
Meet Milo - an adorable six (or seven?) year old boy who ended up bugging the crap out of me. For starters, HE SHOUTS ALMOST ALL OF HIS LINES. He also adorkably (or irritatingly) sometimes uses the wrong words, which wasn't at all distracting. He also said really random shit at times. It got not cute real fast. I wasn't a fan.
Get Acquainted With Ana - the semi-emo 16-year-old girl who duct tapes her eyelids open and puts safety pins through her legs. I liked her the best out of all of the characters, but I do think that her character could potentially be very triggering.
Say Hello to Hank - the boy who's dumber than a bag of rocks and just as useless. He was bullied pretty drastically and yet never got angry or spoke up for himself. At one point, someone threw a basketball at his thick head and he was all: "I'm not even mad about it." Woooow! Where are your emotions robot boy?
Meet Mama Maggie - the mom who is fed up with her crazy kids and may or may not love them anymore. I felt for her the most, because she's helpless to her kids who went loco all at once, but I really didn't like it when she'd say or think bad things about her kids. Do you hate them? Do all parents think horrible things about their kids at times? Do I need to be worried?
4. The Plot - What plot? Where? I didn't see any plot! As I said earlier, this one was mainly about the characters. I love me a good character oriented book. However, there needs to be more plot in a story than there was in this book. It's 400 pages long and hardly anything happens. And what does happen feels random and disjointed and just all over the place. Every chapter was like a fragmented piece of nothingness. I feel like this book was trying way to hard to come across as "deep." I kept asking myself, "WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHAT IS THE POINT? GAH!" It actually made me pretty mad.
5. Dumb Jokes Are Just Dumb - I'm no Robin Williams or [INSERT OTHER RELEVANT COMEDIAN HERE], but the jokes in this book were so lame. I usually don't mind sad puns or whatever, but these ones were a little pathetic. Some were even offensive. One dick joke is too many. I don't want ten.
I don't know, guys. Maybe I'm just too shallow of a person to really appreciate the full effect of this book. Maybe someone who's smarter or more profound than me will be blown away by it. At this point, I kinda just want to blow it up. 2/5 Stars.