This is a book for anyone looking for fun, escapist fiction this summer. It’s about a road trip across New Mexico, when Francie flies in to Albuquerque to attend (and possibly to stop) her best friend’s wedding to an alien nut. This book is full of humor, beginning in the airport when Francie tries to rent a car and is stuck in a line full of people who are there for the big Alien Convention. Willis clearly has a great time poking fun at all the stereotypes of alien conspiracy theorists, who are all sure they’ll be abducted, probed, and returned with all manner of surgical implants, alien babies and memory erasures.
And yet… amidst all the craziness, when Francie tries to help her friend she finds herself abducted. What does her kidnapper want, and is he really from out of this world?
I won’t tell you more about the story, but I can say that as someone who did a lot of road trips across the Southwest, from Tucson to Vegas to El Paso, this book brought back a lot of memories and was laugh-out-loud funny. Willis’ description of road stop casinos, diners and gas stations (and summer monsoons) was spot on. And this book, which starts out making fun of alien believers, ends up giving us all a lesson in “what if?” Along the way it’s also kind of an unexpectedly sweet story about friendship, found family, and love in unexpected places.
Is it cheesy? Absolutely. But so much fun.
This is also a book with a LOT of pop culture references. In addition to the sci fi movie and TV references like X-Files and Men in Black, one of the characters is an absolute fanatic of classic western films. As you know if you’re a Firefly fan, westerns and science fiction actually have a lot in common.
It was a fun audiobook, with its fast paced story, and I expect hearing the alien voices was more entertaining than just reading them.
Only one thing detracted a bit from the story, and that’s that at the end of it I couldn’t say I knew much about any of the characters. Even though we spend a LOT of time with Francie, I couldn’t tell you what she does for a living or anything much about her family. I’m used to books that go really deep into family issues, childhood traumas, etc. This book doesn’t do that. You’re just kind of along for the ride. And that turned out to be just fine.
I read this book for the 20 Books of Summer challenge.