Review of Alienated by Melissa Landers

Landers, Melissa.  Alienated.  Disney Hyperion, 2014. 

High school senior Cara Sweeney has gotten every honor attainable—Young Leader Award, state debate champ for two years, president of the National Honor Society, and class valedictorian.   All she needs now is a good scholarship for college.

Imagine her surprise when Cara’s family is chosen to host an interplanetary exchange student from Planet L’eihr.  As payment for hosting, Cara will receive full tuition to any college she chooses.  Not only that, she will be able to post about her experiences with the alien on her blog.

When Aelyx, the L’eihr exchange student, arrives, Cara discovers that even though he is he handsome, he is rather cold and aloof.  He likes the drab colors of winter, doesn’t care for earth food, and is dreading his time with his host family.  As Cara and Aelyx grow closer, HALO—Humans Against L’eihr Occupation, begin staging protests, hoping to upset the alliance between Earth and L’eihr.  HALO’s demonstrations become increasingly violent and eventually result in another exchange student’s death.

Fearing for their lives, Aelyx and Cara flee earth.  Cara discovers that Aelyx and the other exchange students have tried to sabotage the Earth alliance by poisoning crops with a L’eihr parasitic tree.  Feeling that Aelyx has betrayed both her and Planet Earth, Cara must decide if she will accept his apology and continue with their relationship.

The plotline and world building of Planet L’eihr and its inhabitants are ingenious.  The novel is extremely character-driven, and the two main characters—Cara and Aelyx—are strong and likable.  There are some intense romance scenes between the two that will leave readers breathless.  Aelyx is very literal in his comments to others, which adds humor to the novel.  Alienated is the first book in the new series by the same name and will be released this Tuesday, Feb. 4.

Invaded, the second book in the series will debut in 2015.  I highly recommend Alienated for high school and public libraries.   I give it five out of five fleur de lis!

Review of Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson

Anderson, R.J.  Ultraviolet.  Carolrhoda Lab, 2011.
Sixteen-year-old Allison Jeffries has tasted and seen letters, words, and emotions her whole life.  Her own mother is afraid of her daughter’s unusual abilities, so Allison has pretended that she is normal.  But she thinks she just might be crazy!

After an altercation with Tori, a long-time classmate, Tori goes missing and is feared dead.  The incident causes Allison to have, supposedly, a nervous breakdown, which sends her to a psychiatric hospital.  Tori has disappeared, and Allison is being blamed for her murder.

Allison longs to go home to her family and her music, but Dr. Minta, her psychiatrist feels that she isn’t ready.  Dr. Sebastian Faraday, a graduate student in neuropsychology from the University of South Africa, shows up at the hospital and recruits Allison to be part of his study.  He discovers some amazing and secret qualities about her, and tells her he believes she had nothing to do with Tori’s disappearance.  However, Dr. Faraday is hiding secrets of his own!

When Dr. Faraday is thrown out of the hospital on fraud charges, Allison feels like she has lost her only friend and confidant.  She is determined to get to the bottom of what has happened and also solve the mystery of Tori’s disappearance.  What happens is an adventure that is so surprising that even Allison has trouble believing it, herself!

Ultraviolet is a book that really fooled me!  When I started reading it, I thought it was about a girl who had psychiatric problems and, possibly, some psychic abilities.  However, upon further reading, it turns out to be about a girl who has some unusual neurological conditions involving color, taste, sounds, and emotions.  In addition, add into the plot some surprising extraterrestrial characters and elements, which were really unexpected!

The way that flashbacks were worked into the plot was an extremely smart idea.  It gives the reader the back story and history between Tori and Allison and the reason for their acrid relationship.  As the narrator, Allison is able to fill in the gaps between what she knows and what she eventually comes to remember.  The minor characters in the Pine Hills Psychiatric Center make the scenes in the hospital interesting and provide insight into the daily workings of the facility.  I really like Sanjay, who is a patient due to his paranoia about aliens.  His candid comments are extremely funny!

R.J. Anderson has done an enormous amount of research into the fields of synesthesia and tetrachromacy.  It is truly an interesting concept on which to base a fiction book!

Fans of science fiction will enjoy this book!  I recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries.