Review: Alienated by Melissa Landers

Alienated by Melissa Landers

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.

Thoughts
I went into this book really wanting to like it. Mariela started it forever ago and put it down cause she couldn't get into it, so I did go into it with relatively low expectations. But even those low expectations could not be subverted.

The Good
Despite my better judgment, this book did keep calling me back to it. I must have dropped it half a dozen times in the past 2 months, but a week would go by, and I would be really curious about what happened next all of a sudden. That's definitely a plus, though really I wish I could have stopped after the first drop.

The Bad
Where to even start? I hate being mean about books, but man, this is not good writing. It was cheesy and painful and ridiculous, and not in a good way. There were times when I could let my guard down, so to say, and start to enjoy the story. But then someone would say or do something that would just make you face palm in embarrassment for how cheesy/ridiculous it all was. And the characterization was just seriously poor. It went from zero to 80 in 5 seconds flat. We went from "oh no, there's nothing going on between us" for almost 200 pages to saying the "L" word in no time no time at all. And I am all for romantic gestures! I love big, sweeping declarations of love. However, they require more development than let's make out once and then decide to give up everything we have ever known, including parents and the planet you have lived on your whole life to be together. Nope, no way. You definitely should know a guy for longer than the span of a few months before deciding to never see your parents again and ditching your own world for a foreign planet. That's just not good sense.

Overall, this book wasn't the worst I've read. In fact, I can name a dozen that were a million times worse! But I still wouldn't be quick to recommend this book to anyone other than the staunchest of cheesy YA sci-fi fans. Even then, I would have to add all sorts of disclaimers so as not to feel bad if that person didn't like it!