Four words: Vampire Plants From Space.
Anastasia went into the woods when she was three and when she returned, a change had happened. She tells everyone she meets that she's an alien disguised as a human and that her people will be coming to get her. Most people laugh. Some get angry. But none of them take her seriously. When a message arrives from outer space, Stasia knows that her time is getting shorter.
Each chapter begins with a quote from H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Wells envisioned intelligent cephalopods and Grant gives us sentient plants. There are lots of references to Little Shop of Horrors too. It's been a long time since I read The Day of the Triffids, but its influence here is unmistakable.
I was particularly fond of Stasia's relationship with Graham, a trans man and herpetologist. Stasia has loved him from before his transition. As she says at one point, he always believed she was an alien and she always believed he was a man. Their love gets pushed, pulled, bruised, and otherwise tested when the space armada arrives. Stasia is torn—can she have her genetic space relatives and maintain her love for Graham and the handful of friends that have stuck by her over the years?
I’m not usually a horror reader, so I don't know how to discuss those aspects of the book. Gradually transforming into something not human would definitely horrify me, especially if the people around me began to smell delicious. Then there is the predictable human response and the destruction that feature in most apocalyptic fiction. That would also be horrifying to endure.
I had lots of thoughts about our home-grown colonization and genocides, as well as humanity's xenophobic tendencies. This book can be merely an alien invasion or it can be a metaphor for our bigger human problems. Either way, it was a gripping and entertaining read.
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