CHRONICLES OF MY ALIEN INVASION LIFE

A group of teens’ trip to a lake leads them to a whole new world in McCutchen’s debut YA SF novel.

“Surround yourself with nerds who write fanfic and play with foam swords and go to alien conventions with you.” This quote from the author’s acknowledgements perfectly describes Chuck and her group of friends, who live in present-day Tulsa, Oklahoma. The summer before senior year, the pals cook up a plan to jump into a quarry lake; some go just for fun, and others because they believe the old quarry may be a portal that connects to alien worlds. When their ringleader, Ghost, disappears into what appears to be a wormhole, it sets off a chain of events that makes Chuck’s belief that space aliens exist seem more and more likely. Chuck, while healing from the quarry jump that nearly killed her, grapples with the mysterious disappearance of her friend, her growing romantic feelings for her friend Corrin, and a suspicion that her classmate, the cheerleader-perfect Dora, isn’t quite human. When another friend goes missing, the rest of the group becomes determined to find their missing companions; the investigation transforms into an adventure that even these role-playing-game-playing friends couldn’t have imagined. Over the course of this novel, McCutchen presents readers with a wonderfully authentic group of characters, each with believable quirks and talents. The finely wrought characters include people of color, LGBTQ+ folk, and neurodivergent people, as well as plenty of loving and accepting family members and friends. Teen readers will find the dynamics among the various players to be highly relatable, and even people who aren’t as deliciously nerdy as this bunch will enjoy the work’s many references to nerd culture at its finest (“That was Hanson fanfic, wasn’t it?”).

An engaging tale of adventure, love, and friendship, bolstered by skillful characterization.