A YA novel about alien abductions? Why, yes, please!
Vanessa Barneveld
August 10, 2021
Entangled Teen
Blurb: Nothing ever happens in Dawson, Colorado.
Until high school senior Cassidy Roekiem’s mom checks into a “wellness center,” but nothing is wrong with her.
Then people start seeing lights in the sky and missing chunks of time, but the town insists nothing is going on.
And now Hayden, the new boy at school who keeps to himself and is more than a little mysterious, starts to notice her like it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, “nothing” is starting to feel a whole lot like something. And everything leads back to Hayden. The boy she’s starting to fall for. The boy with too many dark secrets for his kind heart. The boy she’s pretty sure isn’t human…
Purchase Link:
Amazon
I admit to being intrigued by the idea of aliens among us, but, I imagine that they’re here and may in the form of people like George Carlin and Jon Stewart, pointing out the many foibles and idiocy that reigns supreme in the human race. Did I digress? Not surprising. I usually do.
Anyway, Vanessa Barneveld has penned an interesting and fun YA novel in Under the Milky Way. The story follows Colorado high school senior, Cassidy Roekiem, whose journalist mother has committed herself to a mental health institution to seemingly recover from a breakdown. But Cassidy is suspicious, especially after she visits her mother and finds a woman who is a fragment of her mother.
Simultaneously, around town, there are lots of UFO sightings and people talking about UFOs. Cassidy doesn’t believe but finds herself drawn into the flow, especially after an evening when hours pass that she can’t account for. And, then there’s the cute new boy, Hayden, who seems to have secrets of his own . . . not to mention his rather uptight and eccentric family.
I loved the idea of Under the Milky Way and I thought Barneveld did a lovely job of building tension and presenting “research.” I do wish that the stories presented as past encounters had been woven together for something surprising. Although I did think that Barneveld did link some excellent twists in the tale.
Cassidy and Hayden’s romance is very sweet and I thought Cassidy was a kickass heroine who even managed to acquire her own Scooby gang by the end of the story.
I read this one very quickly because it was so intriguing. Excellent read Vanessa Barneveld!
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating:
4 out of 5 butterflies