Someone’s Been Messing with Reality

Apart from managing a rare blood disease that requires frequent medication, 14-year-old Martin Ryan leads a perfectly ordinary life in the small Irish town of Glencooper, best known for its annual Spacer Weekend celebration, during which “hordes of sci-fi heads, cosplayers, traders, hippies, bikers, campers and assorted eccentrics” descend on the seaside village. That is, until he catches his father flying without assistance when he thinks no one is looking. After gathering a lifetime of clues, Martin and his friends realize that the Ryans are aliens, and Martin’s disease is a ruse meant to hide his true nature. When his parents vanish, and Martin uncovers a terrifying threat to humankind, he must decide whom to trust as he and his friends race against the clock to save the world. In this frenetic adventure that’s reminiscent of Stranger Things and 1980s film romps, Hearne (The Very Dangerous Sisters of Indigo McCloud) mixes humor with adrenaline-pumping action and terror to keep readers just as off-balance as the resourceful heroes, who embrace chaos while careening from one dangerous situation to the next. Human characters read as white. Ages 10–14. (Feb.)