Alien Feast (review)

William decides to venture outside after he discovers that his stepparents have been devoured (except for their feet, which the invading aliens eschew); on his drive over to his beloved uncle's house, he spots a neighbor friend, Sophie, whose parents are also missing but hopefully still alive. Thus the strange trio of William, his quite old but determined uncle, and Sophie embark on a two-part quest: to save Sophie's parents and then save the world. Luckily, chicken pox has been determined to be fatal to aliens, so illness has done much of the work for this intrepid threesome, though plenty of the larger-than-life invaders still remain. There is surprising depth of character development for such a trim and comic novel, the first in a series, with all three of the protagonists so carefully described that the book's surprising tragedy will elicit genuine emotional response. The story ends with frustratingly more questions than answers, though, and the humor (in repeated jokes, quirky behaviors, and interspersed black-and-white illustrations that often highlight or exaggerate amusing lines in the text) balances uneasily with the alarming number of attacks and deaths and the continuing risk for the protagonists. Nevertheless, readers seeking a quick, snappy novel about kids facing an alien invasion with creativity and no small degree of fortitude may find this first adventure sufficiently intriguing to draw them back for future entries in order to see the story unfold.