ZERO REPEAT FOREVER

A group of teens resists a worldwide alien invasion.

In a familiar premise, the kids, stranded in an Alberta wilderness camp, know very little of the Nahx attack and are forced to strategize on their own. When they decide to seek a safer refuge, the Nahx begin to pick them off one by one. They barely make it to a larger military stronghold when co-narrator Raven discovers that one Nahx is following her. In alternating chapters, readers learn that this Nahx, called Eighth, has gone AWOL. In his self-flagellating counternarration, Eighth reveals his defective feelings of guilt for killing humans and his strangely protective attitude toward Raven. Their paths cross again when Eighth saves her life. Stowed away in an abandoned apartment building, Eighth and Raven are forced to reckon with the fact that Nahx and humans are enemies. Or are they? The slow-moving adventure unfolds over nearly 500 pages divided into subsections denoting the seasons, with epigraphs from Poe. Raven is a mixed-race (black/white) teen with a volatile, troubled past, a one-note anger-management poster child. Eighth seems to be fascinated with Raven’s Afro, a trait typically more common to white humans than aliens.

An interesting final reveal sets up the sequel; readers who get there will hope Book 2 gets to the quick of what might well be a potentially interesting love story