Of Jenny and the Aliens

by Ryan Gebhart

When boy meets girl meets alien, the angst of first love gets an extraterrestrial intervention in a tale both outrageously funny and full of heart.

Ten years after Earth sent messages out into deep space, there has been an answer. Music from a distant planet has reached our radios. Are aliens about to invade? No one knows, and almost-eighteen-year-old Derek doesn’t really care, because at a wild end-of-the-world party, Jennifer Novak invites him to play beer pong. And things . . . progress from there. Derek is in love. Deeply, hopelessly in love. He wants it all—marriage, kids, growing old on a beach in Costa Rica. Jenny is The One.
But Jenny has other plans, and they may or may not include Derek. He’ll try anything to win her—even soliciting advice from the alien who shows up in his hometown. This alien might just be the answer to Derek’s problem. But is Derek willing to risk starting an interstellar war just to get the girl? And just how far will he travel to discover the mysteries of the universe—and love?

• ISBN10: 0763688452
• ISBN13: 9780763688455
• Publish Date: 1 August 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Candlewick Press,U.S.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780763688455

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Candlewick Press and LibraryThing for this opportunity.

When I started reading this book, I immediately hated it. The characters are all jerks. I think if I met a single one of them in real life, the kindest reaction I would have would be a serious eye roll and getting as far away as possible.

Yeah, I know, I'm pretty judgmental.

But I kept reading the story. Just because I don't like the characters as people, doesn't mean they weren't really well written. They read off the page like a typical group of high schoolers. There is definitely some sexuality and some swearing, but it feels real and like it belongs.

Of Jenny and the Aliens is a story about a boy who is so in love with a girl that he would risk intergalactic war just to make her love him loyally. Reading that description, it might sound like there are a lot of epic battles or sci-fi scenes in this book, but there aren't. At the end of the day, this is a teen romance. These are average people, living an average life, with the small exception that there's about to be a war, and aliens have contacted earth. It's the story of a guy who falls in love with a girl who is "too good" for him, who doesn't understand him fully, and doesn't want to hurt him either.

This is a book about love, desperation, and growing up.

At the end of the day, it wasn't bad.

Do I think I would read this book again? No. Again, this is related to the fact that the characters were just horrible people. But Derek definitely changed and grew in himself throughout the book. It was well written, and I would read more from this author.

A more detailed review appears on my blog.