Bent Heavens
By:
Liv Fleming is done with childhood fantasies. Done pretending she believes her missing father’s absurd theories about alien abduction. Done going through the motions of checking the traps he set just for her friend Doug’s sake. But on the very day she chooses to destroy the traps, she discovers in one of them a creature so inhuman it can only be one thing. In that moment, she’s faced with a painful realization: Her dad was telling the truth. And no one believed him.
Now she and Doug have a choice to make. They can turn the alien over to the authorities…or they can take matters into their own hands.
Author’s note.
ISBN: 9781250151674
JLG Release: Jun 2020
Sensitive Areas:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: Alcohol Abuse; Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: Underage Use; Language: Grotesque/Disturbing Imagery; Language: Strong Language; Sexual Content: Strong Sexual Content/Themes; Violence: Strong Violence; Violence: Torture
Topics:
Extraterrestrial beings
, Torture
, Conspiracies
, High schools
, Aliens
, Fathers
, Disappearances
Praise & Reviews
Starred or favorable reviews have been received from these periodicals:
Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal*
School Library Journal
As she was walking to school her freshman year, Liv Fleming came across an alarming sight: her father, the high school’s English and drama teacher, naked and gibbering incoherently in the town square. He had been missing for four days. As the town looked on and EMTs loaded him into an ambulance, Lee Fleming shouted one phrase: “biologic evidenc As she was walking to school her freshman year, Liv Fleming came across an alarming sight: her father, the high school’s English and drama teacher, naked and gibbering incoherently in the town square. He had been missing for four days. As the town looked on and EMTs loaded him into an ambulance, Lee Fleming shouted one phrase: “biologic evidence!” After a year spent claiming he was abducted by aliens, Lee went missing again, this time for good. Now, as Liv steadfastly trudges through her senior year, she has accepted that her father is dead, but that doesn’t stop her from checking his alien traps every Sunday with her friend Doug, the town’s outcast and Lee’s disciple. However, she’s fed up with childhood memories—she’s leaving for college in a few months anyway—but on the day she decides to destroy the traps, the unthinkable happens—an alien is caught. Liv and Doug now face an impossible decision: turn the alien over to the authorities, or keep it a secret and try to find out what happened to Lee Fleming. Kraus dissects loss and anger through the underused genre of alien abduction. Liv and Doug’s grief and fury toward the “skinner,” as Lee calls the aliens, are fully and uncomfortably realized at times. The prose is lyrically visceral and can be unsettling, but the genuine voices of the characters lend themselves to a story that is ultimately a haunting and heartbreaking look at human suffering and the lengths we will go for our loved ones. Beautiful prose does little to mask the anger of this powerful narrative. Readers will have a hard time putting this down.
Book Details
ISBN
9781250151674
First Release
June 2020
Genre
Fic
Dewey Classification
F
Trim Size
8 1/4" x 5 1/3"
Page Count
304
Accelerated Reader
N/AScholastic Reading Counts
N/ALexile
Level 850L
Format
Print Book
Edition
Hardcover edition
Publisher
Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Potentially Sensitive Areas
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: Alcohol Abuse; Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: Underage Use; Language: Grotesque/Disturbing Imagery; Language: Strong Language; Sexual Content: Strong Sexual Content/Themes; Violence: Strong Violence; Violence: Torture
Topics
Extraterrestrial beings, Torture, Conspiracies, High schools, Aliens, Fathers, Disappearances,
