Key Lime Sky by Al Hess

TL;DR: The structure of an interesting novel bogged down by a very stereotyped, unlikable character and a lot of politics.
Source: NetGalley, many thanks to the publisher!

Plot: Denver is a food critic chasing viral fame and witnesses a UFO explosion. No one believes the sighting as Denver attempts to find the truth.
Characters: I genuinely wasn’t a big fan of many of them to be honest
Setting: I feel like some attempt to draw the town out was made, but it was lost in the aggressive stereotyping of the townsfolk to shore up the identity of the main character
Science Fiction: This is probably more Fantasy. The alien in question is discovered by and uses seemingly fantastical things.

Thoughts:

You know, not everything works for everyone and this just didn’t work for me. Key Lime Sky probably aims for cozy but for me fell very flat on all counts. This follows Denver, who witnesses a UFO explosion over town. Unfortunately no one believes Denver, also known as Professor Pie, and the story unravels as things get progressively weirder and weirder in the town.

My biggest issues was the characters I think. I love an autistic main character. I’m surrounded with folks on the spectrum, in my close immediate family and further out, and I’ve worked with them in the past in a school and professional setting. Unfortunately the character of Denver in this felt so much like a checklist of ‘Autistic’ that I struggled reading it. While people who struggle with a lot of the same traits that Denver had exist, this character felt as if xe were nothing except those characteristics. It ended up feeling very flat, and uninteresting. Unfortunately I can say the same for the rest of the characters, who also seemed to be added by a checklist. A queer man with body issues, a queer woman with control problems, a bunch of VERY rude and add your-phobic old people who in the end are actually just sweet old folks, and one dumb but well meaning jock. These characters all existed per their attributes and identities, with little personality outside that.

There were also other small issues, ones I could have looked over but stood out starkly against characters who didn’t really hide them. The ‘reveal’ of how the alien is doing what their doing was just Denver having an idea and everyone just deciding that it was correct, and it was. Where? What? How? Also, I have questions on why anyone would believe a food reviewer of any type who only eats bologna and pie, just throwing it out there.

The idea behind this idea was fun! I was really expecting a fun time with a rich diverse cast but the story had little to it besides the politics of gender and flat characters. This is one of those cases were I genuinely feel bad for a bad rating/review. I agree with everything the author has to say. But if someone reads the description on this book there is a 90% chance they don’t need to be preached at. We’re already on the train with you, and we likely identify with people or parts of this. We came for a good time, not a sermon. That’s ultimately what this felt like. I wanted a lot more than this offered, but I’m likely the outlier.

2 out of 5 very squishy aliens