It Came From the Sky
Chelsea Sedoti
Sourcebooks Fire
Published August 1, 2020
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads
About It Came From the Sky
This is the absolutely true account of how Lansburg, Pennsylvania was invaded by aliens and the weeks of chaos that followed. There were sightings of UFOs, close encounters, and even abductions. There were believers, Truth Seekers, and, above all, people who looked to the sky and hoped for more.
Only… there were no aliens.
Gideon Hofstadt knows what really happened. When one of his science experiments went wrong, he and his older brother blamed the resulting explosion on extraterrestrial activity. And their lie was not only believed by their town―it was embraced. As the brothers go to increasingly greater lengths to keep up the ruse and avoid getting caught, the hoax flourishes. But Gideon’s obsession with their tale threatened his whole world. Can he find a way to banish the aliens before Lansburg, and his life, are changed forever?
Told in a report format and comprised of interviews, blog posts, text conversations, found documents, and so much more, It Came from the Sky is a hysterical and resonant novel about what it means to be human in the face of the unknown.
From the author of The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and As You Wish comes the unforgettable story of the one small town’s biggest hoax and the two brothers who started it all.
“A page-turner as engrossing as any classic Twilight Zone starring two spirited brothers who run circles around the Hardy Boys.” – Ben Philippe, Morris Award-winning author of The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
My Review
I have mixed feelings about this book. The whole situation– the explosion that leads to the alien encounter hoax– is kind of funny. I’m generally a fan of stories in which the characters land themselves in bizarre situations and then have to panic-slash-mastermind their way out of them only to have unanticipated consequences result. So this story definitely scratches that itch for me.
I just… didn’t like Gideon. I appreciated his intelligence. And I sympathized with his struggle to communicate his emotions and his aversion to sticky foods. But all of it seemed so selfish to me. He seemed so selfish. Even the idea that he could perpetrate this large-scale lie without any remorse, because it’s for science! I had a lot of trouble connecting with him.
Even though I didn’t connect with Gideon, I read the whole book because I hoped that it would have the kind of resolution that would make it all make sense and that if he really learned his lesson, it’d be worth the investment in the book.
And he does learn some things and make some changes. There’s growth. One of the things I didn’t like (and I’m going to be vague for spoilers reasons) was that toward the end, Gideon is faced with someone who has committed two different types of crimes. In my mind, one was much more personal and damaging than the other. But it felt like because the other frustrated Gideon more, he prioritized reporting it.
All in all, I thought the idea was fun, and the story was interesting, but this one isn’t for me. If you like goofy heist or prank stories, though, IT CAME FROM THE SKY is one I think you’ll want to check out.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation
Gideon is gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex between an adult and minor.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violent Content
None.
Drug Content
Gideon discovers an adult who is drunk and behaving unsafely.
Note: I received a free copy of IT CAME FROM THE SKY in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
