Life On Other Planets

Life On Other Planets - Matt Cook

Genre: Fiction | Literary Fiction

Release Date: 10th June 2021

Publisher: Lendal Press

CW: Death, Underage Sexual Activity, Alcohol, Cults.

I was invited to join in for a read-along of this book with my wonderful friends at @instabooktours in August - check out my instagram @bethanysbookshelfuk for more posts about this title.

The summer of 1997 is a year Benjamin Carter won't forget. After recieving the news that his eccentric Great Aunt Pearl has passed away, he dragged along by his Father to help clear out her house. As if staying with his tightly wound Father wasn't awkward enough, he has the rest of his family from his overbearingly bossy aunts to saracastic uncles all living in a cramped messy house that once was Pearls home. Soon he finds out why they're gathered here - to find a missing will. But instead of the will, Ben is finding fragments of a life - old letters, old friends, and documents from a slightly suspicious cult masquerading as a religious organization called the Church of the Holy Heavens.

Tensions are rising between the Carters as they fight to prove they are entitled to everything Pearl left behind. But while they focus on the material, Ben finds that she left behind more than just things when she died.

"Nothing makes sense when you really look at it."

Despite the otherworldly connotations of the title of this story, Life on Other Planets is fully grounded in reality down here on earth but in a slightly magical way. From the very first page, a deep discomfort is rooted in the reader and that holds on all the way through. Our narrator, Ben, doesn't sound like your average teenager - but maybe because deep down he doesn't feel like he is. His voice is so distinct and the characters from Ben, to his family, to the people he meets are all perfectly crafted and each go on their own personal journeys throughout the chapters. Every relationship from the good to the downright broken were emotional and uncomfortably familiar.

"The forces of love and affection were still in effect, but they were being stretched into something uncanny."

The setting was visceral, so descriptive but not overly so - I could imagine exactly how it felt to be cramped into that messy, aging house with a fragmented family all hiding something.

This was a true slow-burner, a story in which not many things happen but the ones that do speak volumes. A story about a young lost soul who doesn't know where on this world he belongs, but goes on a journey through the stars to find his orbit.

Mundanely beautiful, this story left me with a lot of questions - but in a story about life you're never going to get all the answers.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Matt Cook and @InstaBookTours for a gifted copy of this title in return for an honest review.

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