Stories about aliens and extraterrestrials have never truly held interest for me. It’s not that I don’t believe in the possibility, it’s just never managed to capture my attention the way a monster from a gothic horror (looking at you Guillermo del Toro) would. This particular story is different though. From the start, the author lets you in on what is happening, but it’s the resulting reactions of the town and continuation of a hoax that really captured my attention. It’s also the only other story outside of the Nevernight trilogy where I’ve found footnotes, with often clever or funny things to say.
I’m going to try and summarise this story the best that I can…but there’s a lot of information to cover here. It Came From the Sky is a story that recounts the two weeks the town of Lansburg, Pennsylvania was invaded by aliens and the subsequent fallout that ensued. UFO sightings, abductions, and close encounters were all fair game. It brought out all sorts of people out of the woodwork…except…there were no aliens. This was all the clever ruse of Gideon and Ishmael Hofstadt, who in attempting to cover up their own shenanigans, wound up telling the biggest lie believed by their entire town. As the web of lies becomes more elaborate, the boys find out that the hoax might be more than they can handle and could damage their futures.
Let me start off by saying that I wasn’t really caught by the title when I originally started reading this. Stories of extraterrestrials just don’t do it for me as a reader, and I feared that I would DNF this book a few pages in because I wasn’t hooked on page one. It certainly set up an interesting scene however, which made me want to continue and find out what was really going on. Gideon comes off as very intellectual, but incredibly stiff and distrusting at first, and Ishmael almost seems like the dopey lackey that can’t seem to keep his mouth shut. However, they play off of each other so well, that I liked seeing their interactions. While I found Gideon to be closed off emotionally at times, I feel like he does a bit of growing. Maybe not in the right direction at first, but he does get there eventually. However, I do want to point out that this is a character that acknowledges and takes comfort in the fact that he isn’t/doesn’t want to be like the average Joe.
What I truly loved about this story was the way that it was told. There are interview documents, text messages, and more that are littered along the way so that the reader can get a broader idea as to what is happening between Gideon and Ishmael, but also of a greater community. Blog posts and news reports all start to pile up, and it truly feels like you’re reading some case file that someone had stored somewhere and brushed it off just for us to read. I already mentioned the footnotes, but as I said, they add a little something extra to the page that I think gives it life.
Something that really stood out to me as well is just how well the actions lead into the consequences. Gideon and Ishmael are trying to cover up the true reason for the explosion, and don’t account for the fact that someone might come asking questions, or that it might blow up within the town and suddenly, there’s a lot more that they have to worry about and deal with. This is where the bad guy of this story comes into play. Not that I enjoy seeing real-life-ish villainy come into play, but it was fascinating to see how they played on the hopes of people in order to coerce them into doing things for them.
The overarching themes of family and friends is sweet, and readers will get to deal with the full spectrum of emotions that comes with having a family and/or siblings. Some of their bickering felt very spot on to bickering I had with my own sibling. However, beyond all the fighting and arguing, there’s still love and support when one needs it most. It’s sweet. The best part is that it’s all a little crazy, and isn’t that just spot on when it comes to family?
Now, for me personally, the book did feel a little slow at the beginning, but it does pick up toward the halfway point. There are several storylines happening by then, which I don’t usually like unless done well, but it works here because of the way the story is being told. Overall, I didn’t really end up loving Gideon, but that’s honestly a personal opinion.
At 500 pages, this story certainly delivers an interesting tale of two boys trying to keep themselves out of trouble with a lie, but manage to have an experience of a lifetime. I encourage you to pick this story up if you’re into tales of hoaxes, extraterrestrials, and family.
It Came From The Sky is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
From the author of The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and As You Wish comes the unforgettable story of the one small town’s biggest hoax and the two brothers who started it all.
This is the absolutely true account of how Lansburg, Pennsylvania was invaded by aliens and the weeks of chaos that followed. There were sightings of UFOs, close encounters, and even abductions. There were believers, Truth Seekers, and, above all, people who looked to the sky and hoped for more.
Only…there were no aliens.
Gideon Hofstadt knows what really happened. When one of his science experiments went wrong, he and his older brother blamed the resulting explosion on extraterrestrial activity. And their lie was not only believed by their town―it was embraced. As the brothers go to increasingly greater lengths to keep up the ruse and avoid getting caught, the hoax flourishes. But Gideon’s obsession with their tale threatened his whole world. Can he find a way to banish the aliens before Lansburg, and his life, are changed forever?
Told in a report format and comprised of interviews, blog posts, text conversations, found documents, and so much more, It Came from the Sky is a hysterical and resonant novel about what it means to be human in the face of the unknown
