kevinscorner 's review for:

Key Lime Sky by Al Hess

4.0

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Key Lime Sky is cosy queer science fiction about a small town being invaded by aliens (possibly). Denver Bryant, a non-binary pie blogger, witnesses a UFO explode over his hometown. But no one else seems to have noticed and when xes neighbors start acting strangely, xe decides to document xes experiences on his flailing blog for clicks and investigate alongside Ezra, a handsome bartender who seems to be the only other person in the town who believes.

This book is a mix of serious and cosy with an alien invasion and a queer romance. Denver is autistic and non-binary (MtNB), and I absolutely loved xem and xes personality. Xe was genuinely funny and easily won me over just from the first chapter. Xe makes witty observations and dry (occasionally pie-based) humor whether intentional or not. Xe is autistic with no filter and sometimes just says whatever is on xes mind, making xem the town pariah and resident weirdo. So that doesn’t help when xe starts blabbering about UFOs. I liked xes romance with Ezra but could have used without the miscommunication trope (which was used several times and lasted longer than necessary). There’s a found family dynamic going on with the socially conscious bro-ey Trevor and trans friend Taisha, but I needed more moments with them to be able to truly feel it.

You’d expect the tone of the story of an alien invasion with people acting strangely (either brainwashed or replaced) to be quite tense and creepy, but the book never lets it get that far. It always straddles the line and falls more often on the cosy side than the serious. It was fun, over-the-top, and almost campy with some trippy sequences and ridiculous situations. I actually wish the blogging aspect had played a bigger part in the narrative as I thought that was what made the book feel more current and topical.

Key Lime Sky is weird science fiction with a dash of cosy and a dollop of queer romance.

*Thank you to Angry Robot Books for the eARC via NetGalley.