Fiction Friday (128)

 

I've continued my exploration into new YA fiction and picked up this recent debut from the library. This was not the type of book I typically gravitate towards, but I've been trying to expand my horizons. It helps that I'm a sucker for alien invasions.

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

(Inkyard Press, 2020)

Set in the near future, Earth has been conquered by an alien race of beings who look human and run on electricity. Janelle and her family are among the surviving humans, imprisoned in their NYC apartment complex that has been turned into a type of re-education center. But as the aliens prepare a vaccine designed to turn the humans into a shell to be occupied by alien tourists, time is running out. Determined not to loose the stories that make us human, Janelle runs a forbidden library despite the penalty of death if she is caught.

What Janelle doesn't know is that not of the aliens are as cold and unfeeling as they pretend to be, until she meets one named Morris. Brought together by a love of music and stories, the unlikely pair set out on an adventure that might just save humanity.

Told in alternating chapters, this enjoyable debut explores the power of emotions to overcome difficulty and how love can bloom even in the most unusual of circumstances. There were moments when I felt the love story was dragged out a little bit, and moments when I felt it tried too hard to connect the contemporary fiction elements with the sci-fi elements, but overall, I found it quite entertaining and compelling.