Greetings Booklings,

This week I read the book ALIENATED by Melissa Landers. If you’ve read my reviews before you know I love fiction, and this book fits that category. You can see by the title “Alienated” that this book is about *gasp* ALIENS!! The storyline is simple but gets complicated as the book goes on. In a nutshell, it’s about a girl named Cara who gets to host one of the aliens who came to earth two years before as an integration program. Surprise surprise, the alien boy she gets to host, Aelyx, is hot and detached. But disaster strikes when the people in Cara’s hometown start protesting the new species and making threats to Cara and her family about the “abomination” in their town. In the midst of the trouble, will interspecies love occur? I guess you’ll have to read to find out!

Okay so first I wanted to tell you guys my reaction to the book. When I saw it on the shelf at Barnes and Noble, I thought “Wow, that is such a cool cover,” and it is! At the bottom, we have the green and colorful world of Cara, and on the top, we have the hard and grey world of Aelyx. So without even reading the book, I was able to get a sense of their characters. Judging a book by its cover isn’t always a good idea, but after reading the back, I knew this was a good plot. First of all, it hits the ground running by telling us about the main character as soon as we read the first word. The book does have its slow parts, but when the action comes, you can’t keep your eyes off of it. I, personally being the fast reader I am, finished this book in about 3 hours. I could not put it down. The book was compelling and well-written and kept me actively engaged. Fiction and fantasy books are my drug (figure of speech, I am totally against drug usage).

I really liked how the concept of acceptance was stressed in this book. We all feel that the eyes of the world are watching, judging, and laughing at us, hoping we fail and in this book, and the author turned that fear into a scenario. A literal alien is having to go through high school knowing everyone hates him. But there is strength in knowing that there is someone who supports you as Aelyx and Cara supported each other. Cara’s friend and boyfriend abandoned her at the beginning when things were tough, and only Aelyx helped her through that. Being accepted by one person means more than 30 people were saying you’re their friend and not meaning it. That is an extremely powerful message.

This book was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I recommend everyone trying something new!

I give this Book-

<3 Shelby

To read more from Melissa Landers, visit her Goodreads-

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5804715.Melissa_Landers?from_search=true