Undertow (Undertow Trilogy, #1)

by Michael Buckley

[Beth C.]

What happens when your small town, never a bastion of peace and understanding, becomes the place where "first contact" takes place - and where those aliens (by which I mean - a species unlike ours) end up camping? Well, if you're at all familiar with human history, then you know the answers to that question. Fear, mistrust, and hatred lead to death and destruction all around. Throw in the fact that the aliens are having their own struggles, and that those same aliens sent a group of 20 to assimilate into society years earlier that are now being hunted, and - well - life gets complicated. Particularly for Lyric, a teenage girl who finds out that her mother is one of those aliens sent before and who turned her back on her race.

I was curious about this book - I had heard so many good things about it. I will say that, for me, it started off a little bit slow, but once things really got moving, then it wasn't hard to convince myself to hang out and read the rest. The idea behind the story is interesting, though it definitely rings of "young adult". Some books are capable of moving beyond that and just being a good story - this one struggled to do so.

The characters are, rarely, one-dimensional. They all have their moments of good choices/bad choices (except for one, but I won't give any spoilers). And sadly, there was much within them (and the story in general) that rings all-too-familiar to the events currently happening in the world today.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, and I look forward to reading the second book when it arrives.