A five stars science fiction recommendation which gives Rocky Horror Show vibes.

Stasia has been telling everyone since she was three years old that she is an alien disguised as a human being having been abducted a human girl and replaced by a sprouting seed. Now the armada that left her as part of the vanguard on Earth is coming for her.

<b>“The aliens came and took your real baby. They left me. I’m sorry.”</b>

It’s now 2031 and Stasia is 35 years old, violently anti-social, and she lives with two people who tolerate her weirdness - both nerds and outcasts themselves.

This was such a deep character study whilst also being fast-paced and thrilling. Counting down from 25 days pre-invasion we follow a delightful cast of chaotic characters as they try and work out what is going on and what they want to do.

<b>“I call you crazy because you think you’re allowed to eat my cinnamon toast,” said Mandy easily. “You’re not crazy. Your people will be here any day, and they’re going to eat us all. I only ask that you let me watch when they chow down on Roxanna.”</b>

Human-devoring plant aliens, human friends and lovers, crazy and paranoid self-proclaimed saboteurs, sketchy government organisations.

What Grant gets down to - it all comes down to drawing sides. This is human nature. But how do we decide what family means?

<b>Family is where you keep the pieces of yourself that need to be shared with someone else if they’re going to have meaning, the memories that must be seen from three or four different angles at the same time before they find their context.
</b>
Grant manages to pack so much in this standalone book. Identity, neurodivergence, choice, agency, transgender politics, birthright citizenship and rights, propaganda, language, found family and family, acceptance, fear mongering….

As you can tell, I cannot sing my praises enough.
The pacing does get a bit uneven for me towards the end, but this was pulled off great for such an ambitious standalone.

Arc gifted by Daphne Press.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. This was a very good read. A very original concept, and I loved the little bits of war of the worlds scattered throughout. I was a bit dubious about the blend of sci-fi and horror, but it works well. The only thing I will say is that the pacing was a little slow at some points. I loved the bittersweet ending. A very thought provoking book and one I am happy to recommend.

Dopo un inizio straordinariamente intrigante, mi sono trovata a trascinare il romanzo - cosa mai capitata con Mira Grant, una delle mie autrici horror preferite. Sarà che l'idea delle piante aliene carnivore mi inquieta decisamente meno delle incantevoli sirene di Into the Drowning deep, sarà che non c'era un personaggio uno della cui sorte mi importasse (eccetto Seymour - il gatto), sarà che da metà inizia ad accumulare scene, cambi di scena, personaggi e tutti i tropi della fantascienza a tema alieno e di conquista aliena, sarà che Anastasia è singolarmente ripetitiva con pensieri, reazioni e sentimenti, ma l'ultimo centinaio di pagine mi è pesato.
Ma comunque non vedo l'ora di mettere le mie avide manine sul prossimo, sia chiaro. ;)

I am an instant fan of this author! What an experience this was- I devoured this book, looking forward to the time of day I could sit down and dive in. I loved that the world building was complex but understandable. The main and side characters were all varied and complex and the pace was fast enough to keep my interest but I still felt able to explore the themes as they unfurled.

Thank you for this book, I look forward to working my way through other titles from this author!

This is quite a hard book to rate. Some parts of this were really good, others fell quite flat for me.
What I loved was the beginning and ending. They were chilling and satisfying and the only part of this story that I would consider horror.
The middle of the book on the other hand felt like a completely different book.
There’s a lot of introspection from our main character Stasia about who she is, who she loves and where her allegiances lie. But it all felt very repetitive. We spend a lot of time going over the same ideas just set in different situations as the invasion gets closer and closer.
The story is full of social and cultural commentary about immigration, climate change and colonialism.
Nature vs Nurture is another very heavy theme in the book and the ending gives us an interesting conclusion to which one wins out in this story.

I think this is a book that will stay with me because the things it did well, it did really well, I just wish the middle had been more fast paced and less repetitive.

Thank you to Daphne Press and Netgalley for the eARC!

I never thought I’d be rooting (excellent pun given the contents of this book) for the alien invaders but Grant has done it. A beautifully moving story meditating nature of humanity and found family with a surprising amount of humour given the subject matter. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Omg where do I start? This book was so good I couldn't stop reading it for a second. So so good. I rated it 5 stars because it's THAT good. I recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can.