aliensHigh School Alien at Lunch

2stars

By Sabrina Sumsion
Amazon Digital Services, Inc., $0.00, 175 pages

Teenage Jasmine is an Air Force brat. After her mother’s death, she finds herself dragged from pillar to post by her colonel father—but Omaha is different. Aliens are Real explores the social dynamics of high school life along with the mystery of having a unique best friend. Author Sabrina Sumsion creates a plethora of interesting characters in this quick-paced adventure.

Unfortunately, despite the intrigue of the plot, the book has a multitude of factual missteps. A reader’s willing suspension of disbelief must extend beyond statements of fact to include formatting weakness, redundancy and poor editing. If an adept editor polished the book, it might have merit. However, in its current state it is a painful read. For example, the Air Force does not refer to anyone in its ranks as “private,” chauffeured cars in the military are a rarity and female Air Force officers don’t wear stripes, they have bars. There are also problems with attributions, ellipses and commas. And whoever heard of a school schedule that had seven classes with only two core subjects? I have no doubt that this author’s next effort will be better because the character structure is very good. A sequel would be welcome. But overall, this book is weak.

Reviewed by Sheli Ellsworth

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