On Earth as It Is on Television

Sweet and cute kinda-sorta sci fi. I'd group this in a category with Remarkably Bright Creatures where it is mostly a character/family drama story and using in this case alien invasion as the hook.

This is a pleasant and fun read. Nothing terribly challenging. There's some humor at times but I would have appreciated sharper edges. There isn't much conflict or depth. It's sort of a celebration of humans and America in particular with our bacon, cheese, plastics, and television.

I'd say if you are feeling down and in need of a light, cheery, and slightly oddball book to read, this is a good pick. Also, it helps if you love cats. There's a lot of words thrown at the reader about enjoying life and being human. Probably good advice.

First half of the book is rivetingly speculative, but second half makes an insane shift that's honestly a little too silly and goofy.

Open mouth, insert popcorn. Rinse and repeat.

Reviews suggested this was sweet. It was. But also lifeless and contrived. The characters go through their motions as the story requires, responding to stimuli, but I never got a sense of why or of who they are. Jane consistently addresses them by role — “the wife,” “the brother,” “the stepchild” — so this distancing is intentional, but why? She writes like she wants us to care for the characters, and she even interjects occasional PSAs on the preciousness of life and relationships, but it’s all Tell, no Show.

Kudos for originality and pacing: some fun creative ideas, with nicely done foreshadowing and reveals. Way too many loose ends and side plots that went nowhere, but hey, first work. Give her time.

Rating: 3.47 leaves out of 5-Characters: 2.5/5-Cover: 4/5-Story: 2.75/5-Writing: 5/5Genre: Aliens, Comedy, Contemporary, Fantasy, Scifi-Aliens: 4/5-Comedy: 2/5-Contemporary: 5/5-Fantasy: 3/5-Scifi: 3/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: SureHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LoveThis book was... something. Honestly it could have been cut about 100 pages. I liked Oliver's part the most. It was an odd book for sure but, wasn't all bad.

This was so unique, so smart, so fun and laugh-out-loud funny. It's full of heart, too. An urgent love letter to our world with all the trappings, good and bad, that comes with it.

It's difficult to describe the style of Emily Jane's debut novel. The best comparison I can make is [a:Douglas Adams 4 Douglas Adams https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616277702p2/4.jpg] but with more emotion, or [a:Carl Hiaasen 8178 Carl Hiaasen https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1522420456p2/8178.jpg] but with more aliens. One thing is undeniably true: if you love cats, you'll appreciate this book.One day, a fleet of alien spaceships appear in the sky over numerous cities worldwide. After several days of hovering, while everyone loses their shit, the spaceships turn around and leave without even trying to make contact. The story focuses its attention of the impact of the abbreviated alien visit on three individuals: Oliver, who has been in a vegetative state for 20 years but suddenly regains full consciousness; Blaine, whose perfect wife is acting strange; and Heather, a recent high school grad who feels like she is the odd one out in her over achieving family. The book doesn't work as a satire; we already know how people react in the face of a big unknown (like a pandemic) and we've all seen the worst of social media, so the fact that there is a big rush to profit from the alien visit is no surprise. When we eventually learn more about the aliens, the Earth objects they prize are also predictable (although their description is entertaining). But as the story progresses we start to connect with the main characters, hoping that they will find connection and happiness even if the end result is sometimes unconventional. The author's take on aliens is much more [b:Close Encounters of the Third Kind 975119 Close Encounters of the Third Kind Steven Spielberg https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1396112231l/975119.SY75.jpg 533410] than [b:Starship Troopers 17214 Starship Troopers Robert A. Heinlein https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1614054412l/17214.SY75.jpg 2534973], so you don't have to worry about violence and world annihilation. And then there are the cats. Emily Jane is obviously a cat person, and the feline population plays a very important role in the book. After all, One could not purchase answers. Answers came when they damn well wanted to come, which was sometimes not at all. Answers were, in that respect, like cats. Would I read another book by this author? IDK. Her style is a little too loose for me (the fact that Blaine always refers to his spouse as “The Wife” is just weird), and her jokes are frequently no better than Saturday Night Live skits. But this debut is unlike anything I have read recently, so I will be interested to see where she goes from here. ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for objective review.