Title: Life in Outer Space
Author: Melissa Keil
Release Date: 1st February 2013
My Rating: 5/5
Blurb:
Life in Outer Space is a
romantic comedy about a movie geek & the dream girl he refuses to
fall in love with. Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with
that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft –
and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, worry about girls he
won't. Then Camilla Carter arrives on the scene. She’s beautiful,
friendly and completely irrelevant to his plan. Sam is determined to
ignore her, except that Camilla has a plan of her own – and he seems
to be a part of it! Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can
learn from the movies. But perhaps he’s been watching the wrong ones.
In A Nutshell:
Life in Outer Space is a story about acceptance, loyalty to friends, appreciating differences, recognising first love, and the crazy awkwardness that is teen life. It also covers the fear of potentially ruining an amazing friendship when you fall for a friend and also realising that as long as you have a couple of close friends, you can survive anything. This geek rom-com is funny, adorable and sometimes awkward and I totally fell in love with it.
My Review:
Oh gosh, I loved Life in Outer Space and spent the whole book with a goofy smile on my face. I love stories about geeks/nerds coming into their own and finding ‘their people’. The story of Sam and his friends Mike, Adrian and Allison, is filled with geek-tastic references from World of Warcraft and Star Wars to old school horror movies, Dirty Dancing and Harry Potter. And you don’t have to be a fan of these specifically, to appreciate and love the book. Anyone who has ever loved something that goes against what is said to be ‘popular’ will be able to appreciate and fall in love with the characters found in Life in Outer Space.
High school, as Sam and his friends have come to expect, features daily doses of suckiness aimed at them by ‘The Vessels of Wank’ and their minions (read: the ‘popular’ kids) and they spend their lunch breaks hanging out with the IT guy in what they call their ‘Neutral Zone’. But when quirky but ‘cool’ new girl Camilla arrives, everything they have come to expect goes haywire as Camilla assimilates with all the social groups at Bowen Lakes Secondary High. At first Sam is suspicious of Camilla and questions why she wants to spend time with him and his friends, while she still hangs out with the 'Vessels', but he slowly comes to realise that she is somehow impervious to the social cliques around her. As Sam, Mike, Allison and Adrian navigate their way through the change of social structure and a drop in ‘Vessel’ attacks against them, they also discover that Camilla is a closet geek and begins spending exponential amounts of time with them.
Some things I love about Life in Outer Space:
Oh gosh, I loved Life in Outer Space and spent the whole book with a goofy smile on my face. I love stories about geeks/nerds coming into their own and finding ‘their people’. The story of Sam and his friends Mike, Adrian and Allison, is filled with geek-tastic references from World of Warcraft and Star Wars to old school horror movies, Dirty Dancing and Harry Potter. And you don’t have to be a fan of these specifically, to appreciate and love the book. Anyone who has ever loved something that goes against what is said to be ‘popular’ will be able to appreciate and fall in love with the characters found in Life in Outer Space.
High school, as Sam and his friends have come to expect, features daily doses of suckiness aimed at them by ‘The Vessels of Wank’ and their minions (read: the ‘popular’ kids) and they spend their lunch breaks hanging out with the IT guy in what they call their ‘Neutral Zone’. But when quirky but ‘cool’ new girl Camilla arrives, everything they have come to expect goes haywire as Camilla assimilates with all the social groups at Bowen Lakes Secondary High. At first Sam is suspicious of Camilla and questions why she wants to spend time with him and his friends, while she still hangs out with the 'Vessels', but he slowly comes to realise that she is somehow impervious to the social cliques around her. As Sam, Mike, Allison and Adrian navigate their way through the change of social structure and a drop in ‘Vessel’ attacks against them, they also discover that Camilla is a closet geek and begins spending exponential amounts of time with them.
Some things I love about Life in Outer Space:
- Sam’s dislike of exclamation points and glitter
- The tasks Camilla sets Sam to keep his mind busy when he is sad
- Sam’s attempts at writing a cult classic and his screenplay for Killer Cats from the Third Moon of Jupiter
- Camilla’s hidden musical talents
- Sam, after realising he has a crush on Camilla, tries to make it go away by avoiding her, thinking three days should be sufficient
- How Allison evolves throughout the book
- Mike showing off his abs at the beach as the ‘popular’ girls fawn over him, not realising he is gay
- How Adrian just gets on with life and doesn’t let the little things worry him
- Camilla’s stage fright
Life in Outer Space is a story about acceptance, loyalty to friends, appreciating differences, recognising first love, and the crazy awkwardness that is teen life. It also covers the fear of potentially ruining an amazing friendship when you fall for a friend and also realising that as long as you have a couple of close friends, you can survive anything. This geek rom-com is funny, adorable and sometimes awkward and I totally fell in love with it.
“I know that a habitual grimacer is one of my people.”
“I don’t understand this kissing business”
Second Opinions
inkcrush
ALPHA reader
Claire Reads
Six Impossible Things-like? I'm on board! I totally want to read this one day. I love the dot-point list of things you liked, even if it doesn't make sense to me personally! And let's hear it for the habitual grimacers in the world!
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