paperback, 384 pages
Published Aug. 10, 2021 by St. Martin's Griffin.
It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.
Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to …
It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.
Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.
I really liked it, it was different smh, I couldn't foresee where it was going and it felt realistic. I don't know, if it was a standalone I think I could have gone without the last chapter, but I like the open end of it.
Highly recommend it, love the way it was written.
This first contact story is such a refreshing break away from what I have come to expect from first contact stories. I loved the reimagined modern setting, which I felt lent itself very well to the themes of the book. I have to say, I loved just about every character in the book, and the appropriate characters had well thought out development, but some of the relationships between characters I found to be hit or miss.
While engaging, the pacing of the story was all over the place. It started at breakneck speed, but quickly came to a screeching halt to establish a lot of worldbuilding, only to pick back up again in the final ~70 pages. Speaking of, I greatly enjoyed the worldbuilding, but I wish it were dispersed a bit more homogenously throughout.
I found that my favorite parts of Ellis's storytelling were highlighted the least. The humans' …
This first contact story is such a refreshing break away from what I have come to expect from first contact stories. I loved the reimagined modern setting, which I felt lent itself very well to the themes of the book. I have to say, I loved just about every character in the book, and the appropriate characters had well thought out development, but some of the relationships between characters I found to be hit or miss.
While engaging, the pacing of the story was all over the place. It started at breakneck speed, but quickly came to a screeching halt to establish a lot of worldbuilding, only to pick back up again in the final ~70 pages. Speaking of, I greatly enjoyed the worldbuilding, but I wish it were dispersed a bit more homogenously throughout.
I found that my favorite parts of Ellis's storytelling were highlighted the least. The humans' limited understanding of the aliens, the sociopolitical impact of sensitive information wreaking havoc in the United States, the complex hierarchies among the alien species... all of these were fascinating to me, but often took a backseat to character relationships and variable plot movement.
Overall, really liked the story and I'm excited to see what more comes from Ellis.
I liked the story but I really disliked the way it was written.
This entire book is delightful, augmented delightfully because I self inserted Thorn as the voice of Ampersand, not the start-of-chapter excerpt narrator, as I later learned by listening to the first chapter on Audible.
A lovely, competent book, especially for a debut novel. Feels "American" in that it has some action, some drama, but it didn't really challenge me. Bonus points - doesn't have a romance shoehorned in. I feel ambivalent about the ending. It's definitely not a happy ending, but since the ones suffering the most are not humans, not our protagonist, it doesn't quite feel like the miserable tragedy that it was. So it feels like the emo impact the book has (had on me) is contradicting it's theme of "recognising the other as a person".
I also don't particularly like the protagonist. She seems a bit self-unaware.
This book is a bit messy, but not in a terrible way. It shows the sign of a promising new author finding their voice, and the strong plot makes it easy to forgive the slow start and under-defined protagonist. I look forward to the sequel, because this is the first time in a long time I'm genuinely excited to see where a series goes just in terms of plot. Hopefully the next book will be less bare-bones, and flesh out not only the alien worldbuilding, but also the smaller details of Cora's life, to make her feel more, well, human.
