Liz Gruder

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

I liked the premise of this book. Kaila is a young girl struggling to figure out why her mother insists she keep her head covered under a strange shield and hasn't let her go to school. Kaila also has a strange deformity, only four fingers on one hand. When she's finally allowed to go to public school, she finds out there are others like her. We find out through the narrative that Kaila is a starseed - an alien/human hybrid.

I'm not 100% sure what the true purpose of the starseeds are. I think they're there to learn/feed off humanity, but also partially control it. While I liked the idea of the book, there were places where I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be rooting for or against Kaila. I found Kaila somewhat wishy-washy at times. Was she for or against being a starseed?

The physics and world building were intriguing, but I admit I was put off by some of the teenage angst and tropes - cliques, highschool antics and slut shaming.

I did like the mind-screen and some of the other alien powers [travel, time bending, healing] and would have liked to see more of them. I'm not sure if this book is going to continue on as the ending did leave room for more action.

Overall, I'd be interested in knowing more about the agenda of the starseeds creators and how they plan to enact that agenda on earth.
… (meer)

This was an interesting read. It felt a lot like Roswell, but different. There are alien hybrids at high school and a romance. After that it diverges from the Roswell theme. These hybrids have a darker purpose for the earth. It takes Kaila a while to remember who she is and what's really important to her.


What worked--Gruder does a great job building the dark mystery of what the aliens are really up to on earth. You can guess, but you're not quite sure. She hints and then shows the growing division among the hybrids. I also liked her look at school life. The cliche characters are all present, but Gruder shows that everyone has a side of themselves that they hide from the public view.

What didn't work--I had a hard time relating or getting inside Kaila's head. Maybe that plastic wrap really worked. I knew I was reading a story, not living it with the characters.… (meer)

This was an interesting read. It felt a lot like Roswell, but different. There are alien hybrids at high school and a romance. After that it diverges from the Roswell theme. These hybrids have a darker purpose for the earth. It takes Kaila a while to remember who she is and what's really important to her.


What worked--Gruder does a great job building the dark mystery of what the aliens are really up to on earth. You can guess, but you're not quite sure. She hints and then shows the growing division among the hybrids. I also liked her look at school life. The cliche characters are all present, but Gruder shows that everyone has a side of themselves that they hide from the public view.

What didn't work--I had a hard time relating or getting inside Kaila's head. Maybe that plastic wrap really worked. I knew I was reading a story, not living it with the characters.… (meer)