Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences.
This week we are featuring The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away by Ronald L. Smith.
I have been wanting to read The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away since before I knew the title! Ronald. L. Smith mentioned his work-in-progress when I interviewed him in February 2017 to celebrate the release of The Mesmerist. I have been pacing the floors waiting for the ARCs to become available since then. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Clarion books for providing me with a review copy.
Twelve-year-old Simon is a bit quirky to say the least. He’s a biracial kid who lives on an Air Force base, still wets the bed from time to time, writes his own fantasy stories, and he’s TOTALLY obsessed with aliens. Scary aliens, like the ones who regularly visit earth and do experiments on humans.
Needless to say, Simon gets picked on by his peers and his macho Dad isn’t pleased with him either. After a strange run in with an owl on a camping trip with his parents, Simon worries that he’s been abducted. One sure sign- there’s a weird, unexplainable mark on his stomach now. He’s certain it’s an alien implant. Simon’s also dealing with memory loss associated with the event. How can he convince others that his encounter really happened and isn’t just the case of an overactive imagination?
This story is so deliciously creepy! It’s perfect for kids 8+ who like to feel a little scared when they read. Simon is very self-aware and honest with the reader about how he feels about his relationships with his peers, his older, athletic brother, and his parents. Readers will understand where he’s coming from and will deeply empathize with Simon when he’s not being taken seriously by adults in the midst of a terrifying crisis.
Thoroughly entertaining! I enjoyed the creepy atmospheric elements that Ronald L. Smith is known for plus the X-files vibe all the way to the last sentence. This book is completely different than the other stories by the author, and I hope to see more deliciously disturbing contemporary sci-fi from him in the future.
THE OWLS HAVE COME TO TAKE US AWAY releases on 2/19/19, so go ahead and preorder from your favorite bookstore or put in a request for it from your library.
Ronald L. Smith is the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning author of Hoodoo, The Mesmerist, The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away, and Black Panther: The Young Prince. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Check out his website or connect with him on Twitter or Instagram.
