Alien Invasion Mash-Up

The Last 8 by Laura Pohl

Publication Date: March 1, 2019

Summary from Goodreads:

Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is the only reason she isn’t among the dead when aliens invade and destroy Earth as she knows it. 

When Clover hears an inexplicable radio message, she’s shocked to learn there are other survivors—and that they’re all at the former Area 51. When she arrives, she’s greeted by a band of misfits who call themselves The Last Teenagers on Earth.

Only they aren’t the ragtag group of heroes Clover was expecting. The group seems more interested in hiding than fighting back, and Clover starts to wonder if she was better off alone. But then she finds a hidden spaceship, and she doesn’t know what to believe…or who to trust.

Arc provided by Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

Here’s my true confession: as a serial reader I often just absolutely love the book I am reading.  If you ask me what I think while I’m reading it, I will gush forever about it.  However once I’m done and I am able to step back from it a bit, I start thinking, yeah it was good but there was this one issue and then that issue and oh what about that one over there.  By the time one or two days have passed, and maybe another book or two has been read, the rose colored glasses have come off and I can see the book clearer.

Don’t get me wrong this was totally a good book! A solid 4 stars that I really enjoyed while I was reading it, but it did have some issues.  Except for Clover, the narrator of the story, none of the other surviving kids characters were well developed.  I often forgot their names and their backstories.  Plus, all of the survivors were geniuses??  Well, that is explained, but the explanation was a tad flimsy, and it was something I had been expecting.  At times it felt like the whole plot was one big mash up of every alien invasion movie/book/tv show ever made.  Which I actually didn’t mind too much, it was fun to see all of those references, especially the ones I love too.  (Anyone have a towel I can wave?)

There were some exceptional things about this book too.  It had a lot of diversity in the characters, and the aliens were pretty unique in their looks and their motives.  There were some seriously funny parts that had me laughing out loud.  I loved Sputnik, Clover’s dog, who at times seemed to understand everything that was going on.  The ending kind of blew me away, it was not at all what I expected, but could acknowledge that it was what the characters would have done.  Having the kids living in Area 51 was perfect.  

The plot was fast moving, and at times it was hard for me to put this book down.  The overall story was typical of the genre, but there were a couple of twists that made it interesting.  The biggest one being that the other kids didn’t want to fight, Clover has to convince them. But once they do decide to fight, they are all in with gusto.  

Will I continue to gush about this book if asked?  Yes!  It is a great story and an interesting addition to the alien invasion genre.  I can’t wait to see what happens to these kids in the next installment.