Book Review: Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

I know what you are thinking, but no I didn't pick this book up because of the name. I got it because of the cover art. About a month ago I was trying to find bootleg of a graphic novel I want. I couldn't find it or at least wasn't giving a full effort but what I did find was the cover art for this book. It is done by the same person that does the cover art for the Mercy Thompson series which I love dearly. It seems odd but I saw the cover art and pretty much said yay I'm reading this. There are aliens and guns and fire and fighter jets and an areosmith t-shirt and men in suits. Its sorta like dangling sour gummy worms in front of me, I am going to go for them.

Not to mention that it just gets better as it goes. We start out with Katherine "Kitty" Katt coming out of a court house. (Her name alone told me there was going to be giggles.) There she encounters a "superbeing" that attacks and strats killing civilians, she reacts by stabbing it with a pen. Then a bunch of guys in Armani suits show up and ask her to join them. So it turns out that there are these alien parasites trying to get to earth and turn people into evil superbeings, and the guys in suits are trying to stop them. But the guys in suits are also aliens from the planet closets to us that has life, um Alpha Centurian or something like that.

I would explain more but I kind of want my friend Britt to read this book so I am not going to give away too much because I know that she reads this. The point is that the story is actually rather well done Just when I thought that I had things figured out something else was revealed and it made more sense. I mean at first look the plot seems surface deep but each chapter reveals more interesting information.

Not to mention that there was a giant slug killed with salt water and jokes about some one finding a giant mongoose for a reenactment of Rikki-tikki-tavi when the giant snake showed up, which just tickled me because that movie scared the living begious out of me as a kid. I mean I liked the movie but when you live in a third world country watching a movie about snakes in a third world country it tends to freak out out a bit more than some one who lives in Chicago.

Back to the point, there is a running joke about the main character's purse that made me smile. Because my mom had a purse like that.

"Actually, you woke up before I could find your wallet," Martini admitted. "I don't know how you found that pen; your purse is like a black hole."
"I prefer to think of it as Mary Poppins' carpetbag."

Also hair spray and alcohol are used as deadly weapons in this book. Also comic book references left and right. And sex, that happened too.

Basically read this. Yeah. Do it now.