Alethea Eason

Reviewed by Allison Fraclose for TeensReadToo.com

Halloween this year is looking pretty bleak to 11-year-old Deborah (or Dbkrrrsh, which is her real name). Her best friend, Willy, has managed to clash with their teacher over his constitutional right to dress as a vampire all October long. He can't get the hang of algebra, no matter how much Deborah tries to help him. All the while, she thinks she may be falling for him, and, to top it all off, her parents insist that she will have to eat him and his parents to prove her loyalty to the Home Planet.

The long-awaited invasion is finally upon them, but although Deborah's stomachs continue to rumble, she's not sure if she can live up to her species and betray her best friend. As her family grows more involved in the plans to ransack Earth and turn every human into a slave, she wonders if she's been misguided all along. Is human food really poisonous? Could it provide another way to survive? Or should she give in to the memories flowing through her blood that insist upon her own superiority to her would-be meals?

One alien's struggle to discover her place between the life she knows and encroaching familial history can provide a humorous perspective to anyone else who is trying to find their way. Luckily, one doesn't need tentacles to feel a connection with the main character.… (meer)