Asthmatic Zara was considered the town crazy because of her reaction to Observers: those too tall, too fast, too handsome, silver-eyed aliens who had shown up on earth two years ago. She had been like this ever since they had first landed, when she'd begun dreaming nightly of a female Observer shoving her into darkness to suffocate, which would cause her to run outside on her front lawn, which caused the neighbors to conclude--quite logically--that she was crazy. She tended to have her asthma attacks under stressful situations or when faced by an alien. Under the circumstances, it was a good thing she carried an inhaler.

Sheriff Brigham, whom Zara had known her whole life, only brought the handcuffed Observer called Caelan into the diner where she worked to liven up his day. He came in for his dose of coffee, sweet potato pie and the fun of watching the town crazy have fits over the alien. The only way she could think to get the alien out of there--because she was so scared of him--was to bring up to Sheriff Brigham the potential health code violation: a caution about the alien leaking unlicensed fluids all over her diner, The Silver Spoon. Never mind that the fluids stemmed from the beating the Sheriff had given his prisoner just for being an alien. Her ploy to get the Sheriff to take Caelan out of her diner hadn't worked at all. Sheriff Brigham left, most likely to visit the doctor about alien fluid exposure, leaving Deputy Dewey still sitting at her table with custody of Caelan. Around about then the alien took her hand; she felt a peculiar connection with him. He insisted that she leave right away. But she didn't and someone exploded a bomb in the diner before he had a chance to get her out. She was unhurt but her business was trashed, and a few of her customers--including Deputy Dewey--were killed. Caelan managed to tell her there was another Observer after her--trying to kill her.

Then she came home to a house that was trashed and two aliens arguing over her like dogs over a proverbial bone. Caelan convinced her she was safer with him than without, and so they ran together. But it was all crazy to her and about to get crazier.

Was there any significance to the fact that she didn't look like her parents or her brother, and that she had no memory of anything before she was five-years-old? And what was that weird connection with the alien, when they'd made contact? How was it that she could see into his mind? Stacey Klemstein has written a very interesting, engaging Aliens-on-earth story with a few unexpected twists. It's written in first person, in crazy Zara's point of view, only it is clear that it isn't Zara who is crazy but the whole situation that's out of hand. The question is not only who exactly are the bad guys here, but also who is Zara herself? I am looking forward to reading more of Stacey Klemstein's strong heroines in the future.

Reviewed By: Allie B
© August 2004