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Title Alienated (Alienated #1)
Author Melissa Landers
Genre YA SyFy, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher Disney Hyperion
Publishing Date February 4th, 2014
How I Got This Book NetGalley
Paperback 352 Pages
Stand alone or Series Alienated #1
My Average 39 pg/day
Reading Difficulty 2
(on a scale of 1-5 5 = dictionary vernacular)
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| Integration of the Third Kind |
Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.
Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.
Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.
But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.
Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.
Amazing new take on a real world issue. I fell for alien love & was sad to see the novel end. I guess I'll just have to twiddle my fingers until INVADED comes out.
So I was totally reminded of a movie from my youth when I was reading this novel,
The Color of Friendship. This Disney movie was all about an exchange program between America and South Africa. At the time of the exchange, South Africa was going through it's apartheid, and it was quite a culture shock for both girls. The big difference, the crazy hordes are larger and scarier in Alienated, there's romance, and it's not really the characters who are having race issues, it's everyone else around.
Woohoo!:
So yeah, I am so happy I was blessed to read yet another (back-to-back) novel with real issues nestled within the plot of the fantasy novel. This novel had an interesting take on Racial Integration, or should I say Species Integration. As I read this novel, I imagined myself thrown into a school during the 60s, when schools began integrating. How scary that was. The author did a phenomenal job of painting an image that could have been in the 60s instead of a fictional future.
How can you fight an angry mob of scared humans? You can't. All you can do is run. Find a safe distance and try to persuade them to open their minds. That's why I gave the "villain" in this novel top rated. Unstoppable. Unpredictable.
Meeh:
The character development felt a little one-sided. Cara went above and beyond a good host. She tried everything to make
Aelyx feel at home, while Aelyx seemed to snub Cara. Aelyx relationship with Cara grew from tolerable to couldn't-live-without. Great growth for Aelyx, but Cara didn't really seam to grow much.
(blush) I really wanted that steamy scene. I was hoping
for it at the end of the novel but was cut short. Sigh. I'm thinking
that's not something that we will see in any of the proceeding novels,
though one can dream & hope.
There were times that I felt like I needed to be reminded of what Cara and the other humans looked like. Excellent description of Aelyx, though. I understand the need to continuously remind us of what Aelyx looks like. He sounds mostly human on paper, so the author needs to remind us that he isn't. At times though, I forgot what the other characters looked like.
Rating:A
About the Author
Melissa Landers
Melissa Landers is a former teacher who left the classroom to pursue other worlds. A proud sci-fi geek, she isn’t afraid to wear her Princess Leia costume in public—just ask her husband and three kids. She lives just outside Cincinnati and writes adult contemporary romance as Macy Beckett.
