This is an extraordinarily different story about aliens who have been living among humans for thousands of years, with the knowledge of some humans, but at a terrible price. It’s also a story of enduring love. The writing is gripping and the story fast-paced. Hayley, the main character, is sort of difficult to like at first, but there’s a reason why she’s the way she is. All of the characters are interesting, and have their own, well-defined back stories. I’m truly impressed with this novella and am curious to check out more by this author. There seem to be some interesting new alien/parasite novels (this one and M.R. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge are the ones I’ve read) that are forming a new sub-genre of human/other relationships novels that is really promising (this is something that could have been happening for a while and I just happened on the books). I’m definitely curious to check out some of NewCon’s other novellas.

This book was provided free of charge through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, from NewCon Press Novellas. My opinions are entirely my own. ( )

I was a bit disappointed in this book. While I thought the premise was interesting, I thought the execution was lacking. Things felt rushed and some of the writing was mediocre. However, I really enjoyed the characters. I wish the book had been longer, and we had gotten more of the characters and the relationships. Overall, it had interesting characters and ideas, but didn't live up to it's promise. ( )