Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2016)

Starred Review Martin's follow-up to his breakneck, yet surprisingly moving, horror novel, The End Games (2013), trades zombie tropes for alien ones in this invigorating piece of sci-fi nostalgia. A post football game hangout with high-school magician Benji a Benji Blazes d his three best buds goes wonky when they shoot a UFO right out of the sky and it crashes beneath lake ice. Convinced that he has found the thing to kick-start his dull life in Bedford Falls (yes, that Bedford Falls; Martin knows his Americana), Benji convinces his pals to keep secret what emerges: a smooth metal pod that begins communicating via doo-wop music. Though it sounds farcical, Martin has a knack for making ominous hay of absurdities. Not that this is entirely straight-faced e central characters are a boisterous, joke-cracking bunch that never let things get too serious. It's a tightrope not even Martin can always toe: some paragraphs spiral out of control, and the climax is packed with coincidences and shortcuts, as if even the author is out of breath. These lapses, thankfully, are bandaged with a gauzy, Bradburian magic. This is The Day the Earth Stood Still by way of Something Wicked This Way Comes: campy but haunting, and about ray-gun-shooting monsters as much as it is about bittersweet broken dreams.

School Library Journal (Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2016)

Gr 7-10 Benji Lightman is the high school football mascot, Benji Blazean aspiring magician who pulls infinity scarves out of his tuxedo sleeves and is the master of flash-paper during pregame coin tosses. As outside observers, readers will see what Benji is coming to realize himself: he's a pariah, merely tolerated (and perhaps mocked) rather than adored for his magicianship. In the meantime, he and his loyal friends witness a UFO crash and find themselves inexplicably linked with an alien "Voyager." Benji believes this is the moment that will make him special. Following their first contact experience, Benji and friends hide debris from the spacecraft. Then a man in black who claims to be from the FBI turns up asking questions. The explanation starts to unfold when Benji discovers that the psychic dream he and the Voyager share are visions of his grandfather's youthas this is not the alien's first visit to this otherwise sleepy community. All in all, this science fiction novel is good, but not great. It pays homage to the classic sci-fi films of the 1950s and attempts to invoke the nostalgia depicted in Super 8 but involves too many different flashbacks, too little actualized romance, and not enough detail on the alien. VERDICT A solid option reserved exclusively for hard-core fans of classic sci-fi. Leah Krippner, Harlem High School, Machesney Park, IL

Voice of Youth Advocates

A slow-paced, small town seems like the perfect setting for a potential alien encounterand that is just what Benji Lightman and his friends come upon on a routine celebratory night of their high school football team's win. Benji's narrative fluctuates between his long-time, unprofessed love of Ellie; his desire to make it big and make it out of Bedford Falls; and his seemingly strained relationship with his grandfather, Sheriff Robert Lightman. When Benji and his crew shoot down an unidentified flying object, Benji becomes obsessed with a "pod" that they recover from the wreckage, hoping that this will be his big ticket out of town. Conflicts arise when Benji develops an eerie connection with the pod and he realizes that he may be on an FBI agent's radar for suspicious activity. While the story takes a slightly slow start into the science fiction realm, it will reel in high school students who feel as if they have uncertain futures and are misunderstood by the world around them, including, at times, their own friends.Descriptive, realistic settings will make this novel seem as if this alien encounter could happen during the present time. There are multiple lines of character development, although readers will only have major insight into Benji's inner thoughts and motivations. Pieces of the plot seem disjointed at times and may leave readers feeling as if they have unanswered questions. However, there are many twists within every few pages that will keep the reader engaged through suspenseful action scenes and hilarious dialogue between Benji and his friends.Lauren Straub.