Review: The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away

Title: The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away
Author: Ronald L. Smith
Publisher: Clarion Books
Pages: 215
Availability: On shelves now
Review copy: Final copy via publisher

Summary: Twelve-year-old Simon is obsessed with aliens. The ones who take people and do experiments. When he's too worried about them to sleep, he listens to the owls hoot outside. Owls that have the same eyes as aliens—dark and foreboding. Then something strange happens on a camping trip, and Simon begins to suspect he’s been abducted. But is it real, or just the overactive imagination of a kid who loves fantasy and role-playing games and is the target of bullies and his father’s scorn?

Even readers who don’t believe in UFOs will relate to the universal kid feeling of not being taken seriously by adults that deepens this deliciously scary tale.

Review: It has taken me a while to write a review for this book. There are simply not enough middle grade alien stories with a high creepy factor so I appreciated finding this one. There are aspects about this book that are excellent, but there are things that detract from the overall quality. Simon's obsession with aliens is overwhelming. He sees evidence and reminders of aliens every place he looks. And these aren't cute little cartoon aliens. They use humans as their lab rats and don't seem to have any moral or ethical standards that would keep them from harming or even killing humans.

Simon is a little nerdy what with his gaming and reading. His brother is athletic, but Simon believes there are other ways to be strong. He's dealing with a lot. His parents have him in therapy because of his beliefs about aliens. He's also afraid because of what the aliens are doing to him. Simon is a very confused and frightened child and readers will likely be able to identify with those feelings even if the alien thing is not something in their life experience.

The things that are distracting are the story within a story and some of the mental health interactions. Simon is the narrator and as he tells about his experiences, he also shares the story he has been writing. To me, the story within the story did not add a lot to the overall story and in fact seemed to make it more confusing than anything else. I was also uncomfortable with how the counselor and Simon's parents dealt with him regarding his mental health. And while not all medications do a good job, he has very negative reactions and thoughts about the meds they try with him so that might give some negative impressions to readers.

Recommendation: In spite of the detracting issues, I would still recommend this to middle grade readers who are looking for science fiction since there simply aren't enough middle grade alien books out there - especially not with biracial main characters. The story is intriguing and I finished it in one sitting even though the story within a story muddied the waters a bit. I'm not a big fan of creepy books, but this has just enough creepiness to give me a few chills, but no nightmares which is great for middle grade.