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Alienated

(Alienated #1)

Melissa Landers (Goodreads Author)

3.90 · Rating details · 22,497 ratings · 3,349 reviews

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 ...more

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Hardcover, 344 pages

Published February 4th 2014 by Disney Hyperion

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May 24, 2013 Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies rated it did not like it

Shelves: slut-shaming, aliens, high-school, siblings, ya, social-issues, boring-main-character

Actual rating: 1.5

“Your long, shiny hair, healthy skin, and bright eyes show that you’re well-nourished.”
“Uh, thank you?”
“You’re clearly intelligent.” Then he felt the need to add, “For a human.”
“But Eric was probably most attracted to your waist-to-hip ratio.” For a split second, Aelyx resembled a human boy as he leaned back and peered at her caboose. “Hips of that width are likely to pass live offspring without complications.”

Oh, please don't stop. I'm swooning already.

This book is not sci Actual rating: 1.5

“Your long, shiny hair, healthy skin, and bright eyes show that you’re well-nourished.”
“Uh, thank you?”
“You’re clearly intelligent.” Then he felt the need to add, “For a human.”
“But Eric was probably most attracted to your waist-to-hip ratio.” For a split second, Aelyx resembled a human boy as he leaned back and peered at her caboose. “Hips of that width are likely to pass live offspring without complications.”

Oh, please don't stop. I'm swooning already.

This book is not sci-fi. It is mindless, brainless, no-thinking-required fluff of the Earth Girls are Easy type. It is the sort of book that gives YA fiction a bad name, because it is so completely frilly in nature. There is no depth to this. There is zero creativity. There is nothing within this book that garners it to be anything other than brain floss.

The main character keeps a blog. She blogs about her experience hosting an alien. She's concerned about how many hits she gets. She's worried about her number of followers.

The only good thing about this book is the fact that it has no insta-love. Everything else was just terrible. This book is so insufferably silly. It's a shit ton of stupid high school relationship drama and not much else.

The teenagers in this book are caricatures. This book is so utterly juvenile, and it shows in the characterization of its teenaged characters---which is to say, they have no character at all beyond that of lacrosse jock, slutty queen bee, fiery backstabbing best friend, and dumb freshmen girls with stars in their eyes. Everyone is a stereotype, down to the lecherous, overly amorous French boy.

This book is a joke. I can't imagine it was written in earnest, because it was completely, utterly laughable in every way. This isn't fucking sci-fi. A Frenchman would be more foreign, more alien than anything that the mockery of what passes for "aliens" within this book.

THE ALIEN WORLD: JUST LIKE OURS!!!!!!: Fuck creativity, really. Why be creative when you can just---by pure coincidence, such luck, really, have the aliens' world and food be pretty much the same as ours! Oh, wait. They're different. They have no belly buttons. The plot is simplistic, it doesn't really compel the reader at all, there's supposed to be some sort of "I WILL SAVE OUR SUPERIOR ALIEN RACE" shit, but it just got lost somewhere in the telling.

This book is fucking simplistic, and it is an insult to the readers' intelligence.

Am I asking so much in wanting the aliens to be a little more...imaginative? Is the teenage mind unable to process the fact that aliens might NOT look like us? That their biological system and etc. as well as their planet can be anything other than what humans define as "habitable?" The planet of L'eihr is just like fucking Earth.

It is monochromatic. All the animals are furless, the temperature is maintained at a calm, nice 70 degrees Fahrenheit (that's 21 degrees Celsius to the rest of the world). Because why should aliens have different standards of comfort than our own, eh? Because surely, human standards for everything translates universally. Fuck that shit.

They eat meat. They have similar creatures that they use for meat. Aelyx (the alien boy)'s favorite meal is PRETTY MUCH THE FUCKING SAME AS A MEAL ON EARTH.

...his favorite meal—tender, juicy meat braised with root vegetables.

Choose a word for a thing on earth. Replace that word with an "alien" sounding one. BOOM. You've got the language of the L'eihr.

“Usually t’ahinni. It’s a basic grain and protein dish made with larun, my favorite flatbread.” Aelyx sighed, remembering the nutty, slightly smoky flavor of warm flatbread, freshly baked and crisp from the oven. He could almost taste it.

T'ahinni, eh?! Well, it's a good thing that you clarified that word to us, because otherwise I would mistake it for tahini.

How fucking convenient. Why bother with the concepts of aliens at all when you can have a foreign exchange student from a persecuted country of which the US isn't a fan---say, the Middle East and have him be similarly shunned by his classmates and peers. Why fucking bother with the concept of aliens if you're to inject no fucking creativity into it whatsoever?

Alien DNA?! JUST LIKE US! REALLY?! WHY FUCKING BOTHER?

“But if you don’t count evolution, L’eihrs and humans are practically identical. Our DNA is almost the same. What’re the odds that two species light-years apart would be so similar?”
“The odds are infinitesimal,” he said with a grin.

Well isn't that just fucking convenient. Infinitesimal, you say? I call that deus ex fucking machina.

The Aliens' Appearance: Why be creative with aliens when you can just make them JUST LIKE HUMANS. Why fucking bother? In a nutshell, the L'eihrs are Vulcans. You know those creatures from Star Trek? The ones who have no sense of humor, who have no emotions, who dress in dull, brown colors, who think themselves superior to humans? Whose intelligence supercedes that of humans?

Boom. You've got the L'eihr.

All of them, men and women alike, wore their shoulder-length light brown hair tied neatly behind the neck. It blended perfectly with their russet skin, and when combined with the tan uniforms, they were a monochromatic solid wall of brown. Like walking paper bags.

Take humanoids. Give them "russet" skin colors, and then for some fucking reason, make them beige.

...at least his complexion had transformed from green to beige.

and then have his skin be bronze.

The fitted ivory shirt he’d chosen highlighted his bronze skin while clinging to the contours of his chest

Same guy. Different skin tones every time. It seems like this book can't make up its mind what color the aliens in this book are. Oddly-colored alien eyes, "silver". Why the fuck do they always have fucking silver eyes?

It was his eyes that’d left her stunned—not brown like the rest of him, but the most exquisite shade of silvery gray. Holy crap, did they selectively breed for looks, too? That just wasn’t natural.

How about purple? How about orange? How about multi-colored swirlings of every imaginable colors? Why always fucking silver, man?). Give them an alien world that's exactly the fucking same as Earth in every way, only have it be, you know, just a little different. Have it be monochromatic and shit. AND NATURALLY THE ALIENS HAVE TO BE SUPER HOT. To be fair, Spock played by Zachary Quinto in Star Trek is pretty hot, but do they really all have to be tremendously handsome and beautiful?

Where's the creativity?

Oh, want to insult the aliens? They're from the planet L'eihr, right?! Let's just put L' in front of normal swear words because it would be so insulting to them. L'assholes. Yes, L'assholes.

NEWS FLASH: ALIENS MAKE CONTACT WITH EARTH. SUBHEADLINE: MOM IS MAKING POT ROAST FOR DINNER: The aliens' arrival was announced so matter-of-fact in the book that it made no impact whatsoever. We don't know what year it is, but it's vague enough to be a present-day setting. 2 years ago aliens landed on Earth, and...that it. They shared some cancer-curing technology with Earth and, um.

That's it.

That's IT?! Could you PLEASE be any less dramatic?. The proclamation of aliens landing on Earth was made with all the impact of a girl telling us what she had for dinner last night. It was anticlimactic, it was simple, it was thoughtless. All of a sudden, we have riots on earth and fanatical societies called HALO who want to eradicat the aliens' presence on Earth and send them back where they came from. There is no background, and it doesn't endear me any more to the main character, a thoughtless, mindless teenager with nary a thought to anyone but herself and her blog and how many followers she has.

Vulcans? Not Quite: The premise of an unemotional Vulcan-like race...fails. Supposedly the aliens suppress their emotions. Aelyx? Not so much. Well, his emotions are just OVERWHELMED ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE like a fucking 17 year old boy when confronted with his first love. Try again. If you're going to have unemotional aliens, follow through, for fuck's sakes.

Don't have him fall in love so fucking quickly. Don't have him wear his heart on his sleeve whenever his girl's around.

Aliens Slut-Shame Too! Really, for such a progressive society, there's a shit ton of gender stereotype going on in Aelyx's head. He frowns upon a married couple for showing affection, looking like they're "copulating," he passes judgment on women's appearance, how provocatively they dress.

She’d cut her long hair last week and now wore it cropped at an angle that followed her jawline. A revealing skirt had replaced knee-length gym shorts, and she’d rimmed her eyes in jet-black goo, no doubt in an attempt to attract a mate.

Female Friendship? Fuck that: The majority of the females in the book are portrayed as blank, empty-headed girls whose main purpose in life is to attract a handsome boyfriend.

Of course Brandi would want to move in on Eric—he’d become popular practically overnight after joining the lacrosse team, and the little social climber hadn’t made it to the top of the ladder yet.
Cara dug a fingernail into her palm and smiled sweetly. “Go for it. I’m sure he’s looking for an easy rebound.”

They are all stupid, they are all gullible. They are all mindless fools who fall for just about any bullshit Cara the Brilliant throws at them.

“Oh, no!” Cara pushed Aelyx farther back and shielded him with her body. “Don’t you know the chemicals in hair dye are toxic to L’eihrs?”
“What? I never heard that.” The fan girl bit her bottom lip and wrinkled her forehead.
Shaking her head, the girl backed away and rejoined her friends. “I’m so sorry!”
Thank God for gullible freshmen.

The teenagers in this book are complete caricatures of every single high school stereotype there is out there. There is nothing to the characters in this book.

Cara: Cara is supposed to be brilliant. Perfect.

Winning. Cara Sweeney had made it her business, and business was good. Honor Society president? Check. Young Leader Award? Check. State debate champion two years running? Double check. And when the title of valedictorian had eluded her, she’d found a way to snag that, too.

Only she's not. Not for a single second in the book does Cara demonstrate any amount of maturity and thinking that I would have expected from a so-called valedictorian, a brilliant, driven girl. She doesn't focus in class. She barely studies. For someone who values going to Dartmouth so much, her education scarcely deserves a mention in the book, and her activities within Debate Club are just laughable because she's got her mind firmly stuffed up Aelyx's bronzed chest.

The Romance: For a book that tries to be progressive when dealing with differences in others, this book follows a completely straight line of gender steoretyping. The main character is a girl who is headstrong, fiery, prone to outbursts. The male, Aelyx, is rational, cold. It just follows a line of gendered thinking that is altogether traditional and offers no depth whatsoever.

The High School DRAMA: There's a lot of drama in the book about the existence of Aelyx and the persecution of aliens...that's fine, the bigger problem is that the book itself is overwhelmed by a tremendous amount of teenaged drama. Who's breaking up with whom? Who wants to get into whose pants? Heartbreak, backstabbing, high school boring drama bullshit. If I wanted to read that, I'd reach for a contemporary. It just makes this book incredibly silly. The majority of the book is peppered with teenaged hysterics; I know that it's an YA book, but there is such an overexaggeration of drama that I could hardly prevent myself from rolling my eyes.

“This explains your little transformation.” Cara swept her hand, indicating Tori’s haircut and makeup, including Gritty in Pink. How many times had Tori kissed Eric with that stolen gloss on her lips? “And how you got over Jared so fast. Who are you?”
“This,” Tori said, tugging at her clothes, “had nothing to do with E.”
“Oh, gag! You’re calling him E now?”
“Maybe I just wanted someone to look at me the way Aelyx looks at you!”

Some books can stand the test of time. This isn't one of them. I can't see myself reading this book 50 years down the road to my grandchild...well, maybe I can, but we'd both be laughing hysterically at the histrionics and utter hilarity within this book.

And I'd probably have to explain why the main character is so concerned with getting hits and followers for her blog.

This book is just so tremendously silly. ...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Jennifer Armentrout rated it it was amazing

Where can I sign up for the L'eihr exchange program? With the right mix of sizzling omance, action, and suspense, ALIENATED is easily my favorite alien book to date. The chemistry between Cara and Aelyx oozes off the page. The blog bits were perfect and the research on human mating rituals? Ah, I laughed my bum off at that. ...more

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Sep 02, 2015 Ben Alderson rated it it was amazing

WELL WELL WELL.
This book has completely captured me in its awesomeness! I have loved the world and it really was the best book to start of the month with. Melissa has flawlessly put together a world of aliens and humans meeting on an epic exchange program. Suspenseful and well..... my heart was destroyed at the end so thats nice ;D

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Apr 02, 2012 Melissa Landers added it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: 2k14

Last update (I think). Book 3 is coming! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Yeah...another update. We've sold audio rights! Look for the audio book online, or request it from your local library. :)

One more update: Readers have been emailing to ask if there is a sequel to ALIENATED. The answer is yes! It's called INVADED, and the release date is February 3, 2015.

Last update: IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE! I hope you'll brave the cold weather and find a copy of Alienated to snuggle up wit ...more

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Dec 06, 2013 Sasha Alsberg rated it it was amazing

THIS BOOK IS PERFECTION LOVED IT SO MUCH!

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Feb 19, 2015 NickReads rated it it was amazing

It was not even that good, I just really liked it. Addicting.

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Sep 27, 2014 Alienor ✘ French Frowner ✘ rated it did not like it

Shelves: genre-young-adult, 2015-reads

Excuse me while I heal my eyes -

They've been rolling too much I fear.

◆ This book does not have : Interesting characters

- Cara is a fucking bitch : Yes, you read correctly. I know, I know, she's supposed to be smart and strong and different but for real? She's selfish and conceited - damn, she's so full of it, being in her head was so maddening.

✔ She's a bitch with the students she's tutoring :
"Uhh," he began, "water is a, uhh, naturally occuring commodity, no different than, uhh, oil or natural ...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Reading this early means such a LONG wait for the next book!
LOVED A-LICKS! LOL I'm a L'annabe!

Cara Sweeney has been picked to take an exchange student from another planet. L'eihr wants to make an alliance with Earth and exchanging students is a great way for everyone to get to know each other and become more comfortable. Aelyx, pronounced A-licks, arrives but his differences make the transition difficult. He hates the food, all the colors and practically everything else. Cara makes an effort to ...more

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Apr 20, 2015 Anja H. rated it really liked it

*4 ALIEN STARS*

"Look what I made for you. A bowl of diabetes."

I gotta admit, I really enjoyed this book.
It wasn't perfect, but it kept me captivated throughout everything and Cara and Aelyx's chemistry was great. The one downside was that things felt a little rushed sometimes, and especially at the start, some things were really predictable.
Overall though, I would recommend this to anyone who has a soft spot for books involving aliens, romance and a lot of suspense, especially during the s ...more

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Sep 11, 2013 Giselle rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, ebook

Alienated brings us a good mix of humor and romance. It's easy to read, and touches on serious themes including discrimination and tolerance. What I enjoyed the most was how Landers describes the aliens; from the physical to the emotional, they differ very much from humans. The L'eihr culture is described as emotionally cold for the sake of survival. They're cloned from the best, born and raised without parents, affection, or even touch. Their government system would make many of us fear their w Alienated brings us a good mix of humor and romance. It's easy to read, and touches on serious themes including discrimination and tolerance. What I enjoyed the most was how Landers describes the aliens; from the physical to the emotional, they differ very much from humans. The L'eihr culture is described as emotionally cold for the sake of survival. They're cloned from the best, born and raised without parents, affection, or even touch. Their government system would make many of us fear their ways. Aelyx's perspective allows us to experience our own culture through his foreign, often overwhelmed, eyes. We get to see his reactions to certain stimuli like our apparently overpowering flavors and colors. Then their difference in thought process for things like affection and modesty - the latter bringing in a good dose of humor. Unsurprisingly, this visit has caused an uproar by those who don't believe in the aliens' good intentions. This became quite interesting as I found it to be representative of how society often reacts to what we do not know or understand, to change in general.

Luckily we have a protagonist who is not afraid to voice her opinion which is undoubtedly shared by many others afraid to speak up. This is done with the help of TV interviews, but mostly through her blog - although I didn't find the blogging aspect terribly useful in the plot aside from giving us bloggers a reason to relate (which worked a little so I guess I'm easy prey!). I also found the romance surprisingly enjoyable, if a bit cheesy at times. The lack of insta-love is one I welcomed, and their chemistry is electric. As for the side characters, I can't say they're especially well-developed. Their actions mirrored the plot's needs, and in turn their personalities were kept hazy.

After a strong beginning that captured my interest with the excellent world building, it was unfortunate to find myself get bored inside the lull that embodies most of the middle. For a while I was seeing no real progress aside from some threatening notes, being dissed by friends, and the growing hatred of the protestors towards Cara's family; routine everyday happenings. Furthermore, while the dual POV was a brilliant choice for this story, the abrupt switch from one to the other without warning or even larger spacing between paragraphs threw me for a loop a time or two. Though this may just be lack of formatting on my eARC. And lastly, the ending left me feeling incredibly uncertain about book 2. There's a very strong pull towards an oncoming love triangle, but that aside, I'm thinking book 2 will have to work hard to not catch the middle-book bug.

Overall, I did enjoy myself for much of this book, but I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be. It did have a touch of originality in terms of the alien vs human culture clashes and dark themes the book takes on, but it still easily compares to many other YA Alien books I have read.

--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.

For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads

...more

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Jun 17, 2015 Aria ・❥・Midnight Perusing ˚ · . rated it liked it

"The simple truth is most people can't manage total freedom. They make poor use of it.

I buddy read this book with a couple of my girl friends I met here on gaoodreads and two who have finished earlier don't really like this book. One hated it more than the other. Hehe. (Hi Cam and Mel!) I was so expecting to actually hate this really. The first line of this book was enough to make me cringe and tell myself "oh no! what the hell did I just start reading??!. Surprisingly, I didn't hate this bo ...more

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Jun 04, 2013 beautyliterate rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romances-i-adore, paranormal-books, young-adult

4.5/5 Stars

This book it was so much fun! I haven't read an alien book in awhile and I'm really glad I picked up this one. Definitely recommend it if your looking for something light and easy to read :) ...more

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Feb 04, 2014 Mary rated it it was ok

Shelves: everyone-loves-it-but-me, insta-mother-effing-love, sci-fi, arc, romance, atrocious-dialogue, young-adult

Alright ladies and gentleman, let's have a nice sit down right now because class is in session.

The topic for class today:

Wish Fulfillment Versus Realistic Characters

Today, we'll be looking at our main character Cara Sweeny. Cara is a state speech and debate champion (twice), valedictorian, someone with a 100% in Calculus, Honor Society President. She is also a part of the soccer team. And track team. And she's in chess club, along with volunteer tutoring, while keeping a weekend job. She also ...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Danielle (Love at First Page) rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-scifi-paranormal, brain-candy, cover-love, read-in-2014, genre-young-adult, own-kindle-book

Did you know that Melissa Landers writes contemporary romance under the name Macy Beckett? It's true, and I’m a huge fan of those books. When I found out she’d be debuting a science fiction Young Adult series, Alienated immediately went to the top of my most anticipated list. Her romances are fun, flirty, and sexy, and I was eager to see how this would translate across genres. Alienated contains her usual wit and humor with an easy-to-root-for romance, and there's also an engaging mixture of flu Did you know that Melissa Landers writes contemporary romance under the name Macy Beckett? It's true, and I’m a huge fan of those books. When I found out she’d be debuting a science fiction Young Adult series, Alienated immediately went to the top of my most anticipated list. Her romances are fun, flirty, and sexy, and I was eager to see how this would translate across genres. Alienated contains her usual wit and humor with an easy-to-root-for romance, and there's also an engaging mixture of fluff and more serious themes. I was thoroughly entertained and am happy to have a new alien series to enjoy!

Two years ago, an alien race from the planet L’eihr made contact with humans for the first time. They have superior intelligence, technology, and medicine, and as an initial peace offering gifted humans with the cure for cancer. Since then, both governments have agreed to a temporary alliance to see if their nations can co-exist peacefully and learn from one another. L’eihr will be sending three of their most gifted teenagers to live with three human families. Cara Sweeney, future valedictorian of her high school, is chosen to host Aelyx, including bringing him to her school. As you can imagine, not everyone is in accordance with this plan, fearing that the aliens have an ulterior motive. Protesting quickly escalates to hatred and violence, leading to a fast-paced and high stakes conclusion.

First, I was really interested in how Melissa Landers would characterize this new alien race. The L’eihr have nearly identical DNA to humans, except their brains are bigger and they can do cool things like read minds. Thankfully, it doesn’t stop there. Alienated may be light on the sci-fi, but I really enjoyed the little details that separated the L’eihrs from humans. Mainly there’s a dichotomy between the intellect and the emotional. For years now, rather than natural reproduction, the L’eihrs have been cloning the DNA of their best and brightest from generations past. As children they aren’t raised in a family but in a type of commune, meaning very little physical affection. As a result, their emotional growth has been stunted. This is personified by the drab, identical clothing they all wear, the colorless world they live in, and the flavorless food they eat. When Aelyx first arrives on Earth, he is astonished by its bright greens and sky blues, by Cara’s fiery red hair. I like this contrast a lot, showing that humans have something to offer the L’eihrs, and not just vice-versa.

Their differences are also highlighted by the use of dual perspective. Whereas Cara’s narration and personality are bubbly, comic, and light, Aelyx is more reserved and detached. I immediately connected to Cara, who is smart and driven but compassionate as well. No matter how much social standing she loses with her classmates or how many cold shoulders are given to her and her family, she stands by Aelyx’s side. She even tries desperately to find him the perfect food that will remind him of home. Another fun tidbit is that she runs a witty commentary blog, keeping the world (and us) up to date on human-L’eihr interactions and L’eihr trivia. As a blogger, I really appreciated that extra touch to her character. Aelyx, on the other hand, was not likable at first. He comes off as snobbish and judgmental, and he even has a plan in place to sabotage the peace treaty. Over time, mostly due to Cara and her family’s kindness and his budding romance with Cara, his emotionless exterior begins to crack. It's a well done character arc, and I was swooning for him way before the end. It turns out that he can be just as funny as Cara but in a dry, sarcastic way. It’s also extremely cute that he has to recite the periodic table in his head whenever things with Cara heat up.

Aelyx and Cara’s romance is of the slow-burn variety, with a solid foundation of friendship built first. No love triangles, and their relationship is thankfully steady and mostly drama free. As for chemistry, there is ONE scene that many reviewers have already mentioned that had me fanning myself. L’eihrs don’t exactly kiss but instead demonstrate intimacy and attraction through something called sh’ellam. You’ll have to find out for yourself what it entails. When Aelyx proposes that he and Cara exchange a bit of action, my heart was doing little happy dances. This is what I love about Melissa Landers’ romances, and I wish we had gotten a few more scenes like it.

The ending of Alienated has me anxious and excited for the second book, Invaded. I hope Aelyx and Cara aren’t separated for too much of the time, but I am looking forward to learning more about L’eihr and experiencing the planet for the first time right alongside Cara.

This review can also be found at Love at First Page. ...more

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Jun 02, 2013 Ari rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc-galley-or-author, sci-fi

I think I fell in love just a bit ;))

From time to time I fall in love with a cover – hard, instantly – and I never recover from it. You don’t know how much I just love the Alienated cover and how perfect it is for the story!

The Good:

- Imagining aliens looking like us, a better version of us – smarter, better looking, more advanced in all different ways; for some reason I like this concept, I wouldn’t mind it to be true, LOL.
There were many differences between humans and aliens in terms of li ...more

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Mar 29, 2016 Josh Hyung (조슈아) rated it really liked it

Shelves: physically-owned, romance, sci-fi, hachette-book-group

Alienated is the perfect book which refutes the saying "Do not judge a book by its cover." I practically fell in love with it the moment I saw it featured on one of Sasha Alsberg's (abookutopia) videos. Thankfully, the phenomenal cover was not strategically created to cover up bad content.

Basically, this book is about an adorably nerdy girl named Cara who hosts (lives with) a ridiculously attractive foreign exchange student (and alien) named Aelyx. The reasons behind this set-up are initially po ...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Wendy Darling rated it it was ok

Shelves: hyperion, 2014-publication, read-2014, annoying-main-characters, skimmed-or-unfinished, young-adult, february, sci-fi-or-futuristic, aliens

I...am not a fan. This book didn't work for me on any level, from the silly science to the cartoony characters to the broad humor to the painfully obvious romance. I basically enjoyed one scene in the book and that's it. And don't get me started on the whitewashed cover, ugh.

Our review discussion is up on the blog:
http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2014... ...more

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Mar 06, 2015 Dana rated it really liked it

THIS BOOK WAS CUTE. Cara & Aelyx are goals.
I knew I'd really enjoy this because of my love of Aliens and everything to do with outer space adajflhsdfhj gAH.

Can't wait to get my hands on the next book!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...more

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Apr 07, 2017 Heather rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, read-it-in-2017, rtc-review-to-come

3.5 stars
Review to come

A solid read overall!

I promise to write up a full review of my likes and dislikes of this book in a few ... but Im going to gush about the author of this book for a minute first :P

I recently read Starflight and loved it ... this is another really cute YA fantasy from this great author!

Melissa Landers is quickly becoming one of those "I will pick up anything she writes" sort of authors. She is the queen of writing characters that feel their age without becoming "what an out ...more

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May 23, 2013 Faye, la Patata rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013, young-adult, subtle-but-giddy-worthy-romance, sexy-leads, multiple-povs, romance, heart-doing-blackflips, slow-and-steady-romance, science-fiction, good-hero

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To be completely honest, Alienated was a very surprising read. I was expecting hardcore science fiction that was mildly altered to suit young adult tastes with a bit of romance here and there, but it turned out to be the opposite. It's a fluffy read of two students from two different worlds, one from Earth and one from another galaxy hundreds, probably thousands of light years away, as they learn from each other's cultures and endure the widening protest and violence against the two civilization's mingling of each other. So it has a lot of fluff, a lot of politics, and a lot of science fiction. And you know what else? I LOVED IT!

The plot is actually pretty simple. Aelyx (pronounced A-licks) and two of his friends, Syrine and Eron, are to be sent to Earth in a sort of student exchange, a move that hopes to strengthen the relationship of the two planets. However, the trio has other plans, as they don't want their home to be influenced by the violence and discord human societies have showcased in their history, so they plan to sabotage everything. He later meets Cara, a human with a passionate and gentle heart and a fiery spirit, and she could just be the key to weakening Aelyx's resolve.

It may seem really cliché and worn-out due to the premise being written a hundred times in other novels, but reading this book, you'll find yourself grinning to yourself anyway, because the book's strongest point isn't the plot – it's the development between Cara and Aelyx as they learn more about each other. I swear, I laughed, I cried, and I grinned like a mad lunatic. It was so funny to read the alien guy being wary of human customs, of their food, of their sexual advances, of his OWN sexual reactions (to which he would try to recite the human periodic table afterwards... haha!!)... it felt like a learning experience for me, too. Aelyx was an adorable character, and even though as a reader you know he has other agendas, you kind of understand the reasons why he was willing to do what he planned (and honestly, if I were an alien from outer space, I wouldn't bother with humans, too. We're complicated beings =P).

As much as it was heartwarming, there were heartrending scenes too, in which I couldn't help but tear up a bit. There is a political backdrop here as many people are not keen on having aliens in their midst, and it results to a lot of betrayal and violence, and these take a toll on Cara. My heart swelled and my throat tightened whenever she would put her head up high despite all the bad things happening to her, and even more when Aelyx saw all of these and blamed himself for it. Sigh. If there's anything this book was, it was one hell of a roller coaster ride. I felt so connected to the characters that I could feel the emotions overflowing from the pages. Such a spectacular novel, this one.

All in all, this was a great read, and would be an excellent introduction to the science fiction genre to others out there who are hesitant to try it. It's full of heart and emotions, and a lot of scenes that would make you laugh, cry, and sweat (that making out scene was HOT, BABY!). 2014 will be a great year if all books are of this calibre! ...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Jana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: blog-reviewed, 2013-reads

As soon as I heard about ALIENATED, I was dying to get my hands on it. Since reading JLA's Lux series, I've been a massive fan of aliens and think there should be more of them in YA. Hurray for Alienated! This hilarious, light-hearted sci-fi story with passionate romance is definitely going on my Favorites list. It's got everything that you'd want in a story and the only thing that's not so great is that the release date won't be until February next year and I already need the sequel really bad. As soon as I heard about ALIENATED, I was dying to get my hands on it. Since reading JLA's Lux series, I've been a massive fan of aliens and think there should be more of them in YA. Hurray for Alienated! This hilarious, light-hearted sci-fi story with passionate romance is definitely going on my Favorites list. It's got everything that you'd want in a story and the only thing that's not so great is that the release date won't be until February next year and I already need the sequel really bad.

The world building and description of the planet L'eihr was phenomenal. It's beautifully done and with the author's amazing storytelling skills, you can clearly picture the planet in your head even though we're in Earth most of the time. The whole exchange program thing was fun and very clever indeed. But what I really did like about this was how realistic the author portrayed both the humans and the L'eihrs. What do you think would really happen when you create this exhange program? Obviously not everyone will be happy with it. Everyone's reactions was very realistic and you could see where everyone was coming from. There was a few mysteries and suprising twists scattered which was a brilliant touch.

Cara and Aelyx are the main characters that you wouldn't just get enough of. We have dual POV (yay!!!) which enables us to be able to learn about them individually. Cara wasn't some annoying, whiny brat - no, she was clever, actually thinks before she acts and just an all round interesting character. Guys, we have a new sexy alien in the house. AELYX. Oh, Aelyx. He's one of my top book boyfriends and when you read Alienated, you'll know why. At first, he's a bit mysterious and bland, but as we and Cara gets to know him throughout the book, oh he's just the swooniest character ever. He's HOTTTTT. The romance between them was kept at a slow pace, making the swoony scenes between them extra special. And oh boy, we don't get that much kissing, but when we do, it makes up for it. It's honestly one of the sexiest kissing scenes I've ever read in YA.

If you're like me, and want believable and hot off the charts romance, Alienated is a must-read. (By the way, I love this book title - very clever and bold) Anyway, Alienated will sure be a hit next year when it releases. Be sure to buy it then! :)
...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Jodi Meadows rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-blurbed

My official comments:

Intergalactic exchange students? Yes, please! I fell in love with this story and couldn't put it down.

My unofficial comments:

OMC. The hotness of some of those scenes. *fans self* (Also isn't that cover fantastic???) ...more

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Apr 25, 2018 Alaina rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, young-adult, romance, sci-fi, free-ebook, fantasy, dystopia, 2018, contemporary, supernatural

Alienated was kind of interesting and surprising for me. I didn't expect to like it but then I ended up liking it. I definitely want to dive into the second book right now.

Cara was easily a likable character. She is one of the few students in the world selected to help one of the alien students around. That said alien would live with her family and attend school with her. Then when his visit is "over" they switch place.. well, she becomes the visitor at his planet. Sounds like an awesome exchan ...more

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Jan 19, 2015 ☆ ĄňŊǡƂėƮĦ ☆ ŞŧŎŋė rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, romance, young-adult

4.5/5

This book was very good. I had been wanting to read it for a long time so I was glad that my library got it. I read it quickly because it was so hard to put down. I loved the romance between the two characters, Cara and Aelyx, though I thought that it was a bit rushed in the beginning. Besides that I really liked it. I thought that Cara was a good character because she was very smart and could stand up to each other. Her best friend though I didn't like toward the end of the book. The actio ...more

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Jun 01, 2017 Veronique rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: r2017, stars-4-0

"How can we understand what we’ve never experienced and adapt without making mistakes"

I have been on the fence about this book for quite a while, pondering whether to read it or not. As it happens, a copy found its way to me and I pretty much read it in one day.

Landers creates a very interesting premise, a story of cultural clashing between humans and aliens, who have only recently met. Three L'eihr come to Earth as exchange students, and the narrative follows one of these, the one going to the ...more

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Jan 23, 2019 Suzzie rated it it was amazing

I really enjoyed this book. So much so that I read it in one sitting and up until pass 1 am on a weekday. This book involves an exchange student program with aliens and humans (talk about foreign exchange) and involves a slow burn romance between the two mains, Cara and Aelyx, that though predictable because we are told to expect it, it is actually an amusing romance. I did not like Syrine, but will wait to rant about her until I read the next two books this week. I have had this trilogy on my b ...more

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Jan 04, 2015 Lainey rated it really liked it

3.75/5 or 4/5 I honestly can't decide which fits it more for me.

So many of my friends here on Booktube have recommended this book to me, and I am so glad I finally picked it up, especially after reading a lot of fantasy up until it. It was the fresh breath I needed with reading.

Cara is a bomb character. I really enjoyed the Debate Team aspect of her life, because I could really see that threaded through her character the entire storyline - I'm glad she didn't lose herself.

I liked Aelyx too. I a ...more

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Jan 22, 2018 Colleen Houck added it

Shelves: my-recommendations, colleen-houck-book-club-pick, military, politics, sci-fi, suspense, chbc-author, aliens, another-world, friends

Loved this book and the slow, building romance. The characters are awesome and really like learning about the home world. I found myself craving pot roast, but not bland pot roast. If you're a sci-fi fan, pick this one up. ...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Celeste_pewter rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Two-second recap: Alienated is a stunner of a debut novel.

With two engaging lead characters, a star-crossed romance (quite literally in this case!), and an unexpected series of twists, this is a book that is sure to capture the heart of readers everywhere.

***

Full review:

Since the latter half of 2013, it seems like aliens have been the subject du jour in the world of YA fiction.

Books like Demitria Lunetta’s In the After (HarperTeen), Margaret Stohl’s Icons (Little, Brown BFYR) and Rick Yan ...more

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Dec 16, 2013 Layla rated it it was ok

Shelves: ya

Alienated by Melissa Landers drew me in with its beautiful cover art. Seriously, guys, that cover art is really pretty and compelling: human Cara Sweeny (with fiery human emotions, a field of flowers, and lots of warm colors) gazes up into space at alien human Aelyx (cue the greys, tans, and browns, because he is emotionally distant, because his people bred emotion out of their human DNA, which was, shockingly, a terrible idea). But what was kind of distressing about Alienated is that everything Alienated by Melissa Landers drew me in with its beautiful cover art. Seriously, guys, that cover art is really pretty and compelling: human Cara Sweeny (with fiery human emotions, a field of flowers, and lots of warm colors) gazes up into space at alien human Aelyx (cue the greys, tans, and browns, because he is emotionally distant, because his people bred emotion out of their human DNA, which was, shockingly, a terrible idea). But what was kind of distressing about Alienated is that everything that is potentially interesting about the story is on the cover; the story relies mostly on the developing relationship with Cara and Aelyx, which is to the novel’s detriment.

Admittedly, my bias as a YA reader and reviewer is that I am a sucker for good world-building, and this is not the focus of Alienated. I enjoy romance a lot, but for me it falls second to the project of developing a believable and interesting world for those two crazy kids to fall in love in. Basic premise: Aelyx and Cara are part of a human-alien student exchange program; Cara is a smartypants who is selected for the awesome responsibility of participating in said exchange; all she and we know about said aliens is that their DNA is human but they’ve developed differently (they bred emotions out of their DNA! which makes them monochromatic! Obvious symbolism is obvious) and they also brought some magical medicinal cures to earth (which, for example, cured Cara’s mother of cancer - this minor, minor plot point was actually the most touching aspect of the book for me).

Aelyx and the other L’eihr exchange students are less than enthusiastic about this; they’re smarter and more technologically advanced than their emotional human hosts, and are understandably less than enthusiastic about the prospect of these emotional human creatures coming to their planet to despoil it. So they come up with a plan that we’re not told very much about. Fair enough, that seems logical enough to me. This is the premise of the novel and all of this worked for me.

Here’s what doesn’t work for me – the execution of the novel. One, I thought the worldbuilding with regards to the L’eihr was uninteresting but also inconsistent. On the one hand, they are essentially humans without all their crazy emotions. Fine. But while this leads to technological advancement (for reasons I don’t entirely buy), it also makes them kind of uninteresting. This is true both in terms of imagining difference for me– i.e., they’re an alien race that’s … basically just a negative of humans – but also in terms of having an emotional investment in the L’eihr: it’s difficult for me to care about characters who are emotionally blank and behave like superior assholes all the time. Two, the defining characteristics of the L’eihr are that they’re (1) super intelligent and (2) not super emotional. AND YET when Aelyx and his compatriots come up with their super secret plan, it’s one that actually seems to be primarily guided by emotion and not intelligence (in other words, their fear for their homeland is motivated by those tricksy human emotions that they’re not supposed to be overwhelmed by AND is also kind of a dumb plan when it comes to sabotaging their stay on Earth. I wanted to forgive this – they’re teenagers, and teenagers can be dumb, but it’s hard to forgive it when I’m supposed to believe that they’re super smart, super logical teenagers). So there’s the world-building problem for me.

The second major problem I had with the novel was the romance element, which is a huge problem because the novel relies so heavily on their developing romantic relationship to sustain interest. The relationship is one of those enemies-to-friends things, but I wasn’t really clear on how or why they became friends other than their burning physical attraction to one another: Aelyx is really super hot, and the words “sapphire” and “cerulean” are tossed around quite a bit to describe Cara’s eyes. In fact, the relationship seemed kind of terrible to me – though through no fault of his own, Aelyx isolates her from all her friends, thus becoming her only friend, and then becoming her love interest. He belittles her intelligence, is lying actively to her, and wants her to leave her family and friends behind so they can escape to his planet. This has all the hallmark characteristics of a bad relationship to me. Beyond physical attraction, I’m not sure why they’re in love, and I definitely didn’t understand why Cara makes the decision to (view spoiler). Head, meet desk.

On a final note, I really, really, really dislike the binaries that get placed on the two leads. What’s attractive about Cara is her emotion and fiery human passions; what’s attractive about Aelyx is that he’s distant and rational. It was mildly upsetting to me that women are associated with emotion and passion and men are associated with reason in this romantic relationship; they’re familiar gendered stereotypes and the way that this then plays out is predictable (and yes, I know that there are male humans in the book who are emotional, and female among the L’eihr who are logical, but the problem for me is that the primary romantic relationship falls along these gendered lines).

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for the chance to read and review this book. Generally, I like the Disney-Hyperion books I’ve read, but this wasn’t to my taste.
...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Pre-Signing Discussion With Heather and Morgan	1	1	Aug 02, 2016 01:36PM
Bookish Wonders: June Series Read	1	2	Jun 11, 2016 12:56PM
Ali's Book Club: Final Thoughts	2	4	Feb 08, 2016 03:40AM
Did anyone else not like this book?	2	40	Nov 01, 2015 06:13PM
Sinopsis en Español // Synopsis in Spanish	1	2	Sep 11, 2015 09:25AM
YA Buddy Readers'...: Alienated by Melissa Landers - Restarting August 9th 2015	127	150	Aug 13, 2015 07:13AM
YA Today Book Club: Discussion # 28 - Alienated	3	12	Jan 29, 2015 11:16AM

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About Melissa Landers

Melissa Landers

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Melissa Landers writes science fiction for teens and the young at heart. The Alienated trilogy (ALIENATED, INVADED, UNITED) and the Starflight duology (STARFLIGHT, STARFALL) are complete! Look for Melissa's middle grade debut BLASTAWAY, now available from Disney-Hyperion.

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“He prepared the richest, most indulgent and disgusting dish imaginable - a bowl of fudge ripple ice-cream topped with chocolate syrup, semi-sweet chocolate morsels, chocolate sprinkles, and, for good measure, a chocolate brownie from the pantry. He even garnished it with a handful of M&M's.

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