A review by adamskiboy528491
Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

4.0

"Little Green Men about Four foot One,
Maybe they want to have some fun
Little Green Men about Four foot Two,
Maybe he wants to mate with you...
Little Green Men about Four foot Three,
Maybe they want to be set free...
Little Green Men about Four foot,
Maybe they want to kick some butt."

- Steve Vai

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus is brilliantly crafted and tightly plotted, and I don't think I'll ever re-read it because it is emotionally brutal to the core and will wreck your day! After Liv's father went missing for two years, claiming he's been abducted by aliens, Liv and her friend Doug find an alien trapped in one of her father's traps. It sounded like the kind of thing that might be right up my alley (being an avid lover of Science Fiction and Horror), so it seemed like a fun book to look into. Having now finished it, I can say that it was a good decision on my part.

The central theme that I enjoyed exploring was the theme of trauma: the trauma of losing a parent in such an upsetting way & also the trauma that comes with what Liv and Doug do to the alien they've captured. Later on, the novel shifts to examining the trauma that comes with how they treat this alien and the weight that is keeping the secret on them. It illuminates (in an unexpected way) just how completely trauma and loss can shape our thoughts and actions and send otherwise reasonable people into an inescapable downward spiral. Although, the latter part of the book contains graphic torture scenes that are sometimes painful to read through. The writing was beautiful, the story was compelling, and I couldn't put this book down. 

The search for life beyond the planet often takes looking beyond the Sun's reach, to distant stars in search for life. But sometimes extraterrestrials are a lot close than even the nearest stars, and you only need to look within the Solar System itself for them.