What starts out as an all too tedious story of sibling rivalry and uncomfortable family dynamics into which an additional teenager is dropped becomes a gripping commentary on the paranoia of the 1980s and the nature of reality, all wrapped in a time travel and first contact narrative.

Some of the family interactions feel a little larger than life, and yet all too realistic for the way that teenagers can view the world in dramatic set pieces.

The four part structure of the story works well, particularly the final section, where the choose-your-own adventure theme that has threaded through the rest of the story becomes foregrounded, such that the ending is both definitive and unstated.

Rubinstein has managed to work the theme of alienation masterfully, with multiple characters used to explore this idea -- what does it take to be alien? ( )