Well, this was a new endeavor for me. While I have become more and more interested in Sci-Fi with the Cinder and Skyward series, I have never really actively read Alien encounter books or watched alien encounter movies. Unless… E.T. counts? The town of Splendor felt familiar to me. It felt like my hometown that always has dreamers trying to get out and something of a quicksand effect where some people get pulled back in or never get out in the first place. These teenagers felt like friends. I saw and heard their fears, dreams, and friendship from the moment I “met” them. I truly felt honored to be caught in this story with them and I am having a hard time moving on from this world.
Leave a CommentAlmost everyone in the small town of Splendor, Ohio, was affected when the local steel mill exploded. If you weren’t a casualty of the accident yourself, chances are a loved one was. That’s the case for seventeen-year-old Franny, who, five years after the explosion, still has to stand by and do nothing as her brother lies in a coma.
In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It’s silly, it’s fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.
Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn’t fiction–it’s a bright light, something massive hurtling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate…everything changes.
Razorbill Publishing, Amazon