Book Review: It Looks Like Us by Alison Ames

Publisher’s Book Description:

The remote terror of THE THING meets the body horror of WILDER GIRLS in this fast-paced Antarctic thriller.

Shy high school junior Riley Kowalski is spending her winter break on a research trip to Antarctica, sponsored by one of the world’s biggest tech companies. She joins five student volunteers, a company-approved chaperone, and an impartial scientist to prove that environmental plastic pollution has reached all the way to Antarctica, but what they find is something much worse… something that looks human.

Riley has anxiety–ostracized by the kids at school because of panic attacks–so when she starts to feel like something’s wrong with their expedition leader, Greta, she writes it off. But when Greta snaps and tries to kill Riley, she can’t chalk it up to an overactive imagination anymore. Worse, after watching Greta disintegrate, only to find another student with the same affliction, she realizes they haven’t been infected, they’ve been infiltrated–by something that can change its shape. And if the group isn’t careful, that something could quickly replace any of them.

Karen’s Thoughts:

This is a combination of THE THING and The X-files. I know that comparison will mean nothing to most teens, but for other librarians reading this blog you may get it.

This book has a lot of cool elements – like kids alone in the wilderness trying to survive and unknown horror – but it gets a bit sluggish in the middle. It’s framed as a police investigation so you know something has happened as teens are being interviewed and it flashes back to the previous few days to explain it. There is definitely a slow unfolding of events that keeps the reader curious.

Some cool twists and turns, and a mostly entertaining read. I recommend it, but with the note that to me, it was sluggish a bit in the middle.

Coming September 27th from Page Street Kids

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