Alienated (#1) by Melissa Landers: Book Review

*No. of pages: 344
*Average Rating on Goodreads: 3.97/5
*My Rating on Goodreads: 5/5

 

SYNOPSIS via Goodreads:

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara’s classmates get swept up by anti-L’eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn’t safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara’s locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she’s fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

 

—–

 

Review:

 

Ever since reading the Lux Series by Jennifer Armentrout, I found myself wanting to read more alien-related stories that of course, have some freaking out of this world love stories, which is actually literal in every means!

First of all though, I want to express my genuine affection for the book cover of Alienated… I have no idea why but seeing the cover made me want to read it even more! It was like when I saw These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, the cover is so amaze-balls, I had the strongest urge to read it! Going back, obviously, the cover of Alienated represents the planet that our main characters have come from, but seeing the guy’s world that seems so dull and lifeless made me think how their system works. Forming a theory from the synopsis, I get this idea that the L’eihr kind is much more evolved than us. But what’s with the gloomy planet and what could they possibly need here on Earth? What could us humans possibly offer them that they don’t already have?

I really love the concept of the exchange student program of a human and a L’eihr… As Melissa Landers joked about, “a seriously foreign exchange”! I mean, how cool could that be to have an alien be a guest at your home for eight months? And have I mentioned how hot and handsome the alien our main character would be hosting? Well, you have that to be giddy about!

However, Cara Sweeney saw this exchange program as something horrible at first, not a chance of a lifetime. Cara is a grade-A student, valedictorian, captain of the debate team, star student and has a lot of followers on her blog, which makes her even more set to be a journalist. Being chosen to be one of the only three persons on Earth to be a part of the L’eihr exchange program would be good on her already explicit transcript and of course, there’s the college scholarship. Yet even before Aelyx have lasted for more than a few months, Cara loses two of the most important people in her life… Then why couldn’t she just back out of the program despite the danger lurking with the protestors of the alliance?

Aelyx came from a different world where everything is just truly different from Earth. So adjusting at the Sweeney’s humble home was hard, but not as hard as he expected it to be. When he arrived on Earth for the exchange program, he and two of his L’eihr friends have a goal: Stop the alliance between their planet and Earth. They don’t trust humans; they could see how Mother Earth slowly dies at their hands, and Aelyx just couldn’t let them do that to his own planet. So why is his plan to sabotage the alliance becomes so hard as he grows to know Cara Sweeney?

The first thing that made me fall for this book so hard was our female protagonist—Cara Sweeney. She’s intelligent; she has her goals straight and she’s in control of the course of her life. So the very first page was so amusing because her life is somehow being jeopardized at the arrival of the L’eihrs. But even in a state of shock at the news that she’ll be one of three teenagers who’ll represent Earth because of her impressive background, she just couldn’t turn down the chance of her lifetime. So even if her three-year boyfriend Eric loathes the L’eihrs and even if her best friend doesn’t find the idea appealing at all, she set her goal to give her L’eihr the comfort that he needs during his stay. Cara is strong and strong-willed, I admire those characteristics so much because one thing I hate about main characters is their low self-esteem, insecurities and hiding who they really are; Cara is the opposite of that.

Second, the whole plot… it’s amazingly and creatively done—hands down to Melissa Landers! Seriously, I just loved the whole system she has done with, well, the whole freaking universe! It was so realistic that you could just completely get lost in Melissa’s words without being disturbed by the sucky reality. Although I have to admit, the first time Aelyx’ point of view came up, it was such an overwhelming burst of information and there are a lot of times that it wasn’t explained in an instant and I was just like, “Um, what?” but still, when you finally get the hang of the terms and understand all of the the information, you’d fall in love with it.

Third: I adore the point of view! We always get the usual only one point of view, and it’s really okay but it’s kind of limited. I think that a book needs at least two POVs if it’s a fantasy, science fiction or dystopian novels. It’ll give the readers a more distinct insight to what the author was actually imagining when she was writing the story so thank you Melissa for providing us Aelyx and Cara’s deepest thoughts and emotions.

Another reason why I love Alienated so much is how real the perspectives and opinions are; Melissa conveyed true and interesting messages to her readers through the lines of her characters. For example is how many times she mentioned in different ways how humans act on defense when something enters in their lives that are unfamiliar to them. We humans can’t accept the fact that other species from other planets may be superior to us, that they are evolved in ways that we are not; that we are inferiors ones. As said in the latest Transformers movie, “You species are all the same, you want to believe you’re at the center of the universe”. In Alienated, people rallied against the alliance of Earth with another planet, simply because they are afraid of the unknown. Another message (my favorite), is when two characters tackled the topic about the religions of humans and their God: “If you believe God’s powerful enough to create the Earth in seven days, then why can’t He create other worlds too?”. If you are a believer or non-believer of aliens, I firmly believe that this line from Alienated is so striking. A friend of mine once asked me if I believe that there are other beings outside Earth. Instead of asking, I threw the question back at him… He said, “Yes. The universe is so big and unexplored. Why would we even think that we’re all alone when the Earth is so small?”

Lastly, I love the way the story flows so smoothly that you’d practically be in a trance while reading it. When I was reading this book actually, it devoured me so much that I haven’t even noticed that it was already three in the morning! I didn’t get sleepy or anything! And even though the story’s progression was a bit slow on reaching the rising action, it wasn’t boring and there weren’t any drag part. The way Aelyx and Cara’s relationship was even sailed smoothly and besides the fact that their love story is really unlike any other, Melissa found a way to make it even more special—I am so not going to tell you how! You have to read it to find out yourself!

On the other hand, this is the first book and the sequel is not due until next year so that’s the catch. But I’m telling you, there’s no rude or heart bursting cliffhanger in the end of Alienated, don’t worry! The only problem is that you’d be yearning for more and more and more!

So when you’re done reading Alienated and get so frustrated on waiting for Invaded, I suggest you to read other alien-related books that has out of this world love stories like:

• Lux by Jennifer Armentrout
• These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy
• Across The Universe by Beth Revis

And so… Thank you guys so much for reading my book review. I hope this helps!

Comments? Suggestions? Requests? Or do you simply want to have an “Alien talk” with me? Then please do leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you! 🙂