On Earth as It Is on Television

It's difficult to describe the style of Emily Jane's debut novel. The best comparison I can make is [a:Douglas Adams 4 Douglas Adams https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616277702p2/4.jpg] but with more emotion, or [a:Carl Hiaasen 8178 Carl Hiaasen https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1522420456p2/8178.jpg] but with more aliens. One thing is undeniably true: if you love cats, you'll appreciate this book.One day, a fleet of alien spaceships appear in the sky over numerous cities worldwide. After several days of hovering, while everyone loses their shit, the spaceships turn around and leave without even trying to make contact. The story focuses its attention of the impact of the abbreviated alien visit on three individuals: Oliver, who has been in a vegetative state for 20 years but suddenly regains full consciousness; Blaine, whose perfect wife is acting strange; and Heather, a recent high school grad who feels like she is the odd one out in her over achieving family. The book doesn't work as a satire; we already know how people react in the face of a big unknown (like a pandemic) and we've all seen the worst of social media, so the fact that there is a big rush to profit from the alien visit is no surprise. When we eventually learn more about the aliens, the Earth objects they prize are also predictable (although their description is entertaining). But as the story progresses we start to connect with the main characters, hoping that they will find connection and happiness even if the end result is sometimes unconventional. The author's take on aliens is much more [b:Close Encounters of the Third Kind 975119 Close Encounters of the Third Kind Steven Spielberg https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1396112231l/975119.SY75.jpg 533410] than [b:Starship Troopers 17214 Starship Troopers Robert A. Heinlein https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1614054412l/17214.SY75.jpg 2534973], so you don't have to worry about violence and world annihilation. And then there are the cats. Emily Jane is obviously a cat person, and the feline population plays a very important role in the book. After all, One could not purchase answers. Answers came when they damn well wanted to come, which was sometimes not at all. Answers were, in that respect, like cats. Would I read another book by this author? IDK. Her style is a little too loose for me (the fact that Blaine always refers to his spouse as “The Wife” is just weird), and her jokes are frequently no better than Saturday Night Live skits. But this debut is unlike anything I have read recently, so I will be interested to see where she goes from here. ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for objective review.