While Nowhere on Earth is a sci-fi story, at its core it is a story of self-discovery in a difficult situation for a young girl. 

Emily has gotten into some trouble at school and when she meets Aidan, an alien, she finds she has more reasons to run away. Emily finds herself along the way. Pretty basic and for the most part it is. There are elements that didn't quite work out for me and others did.

How she didn't tell her parents what actually happened at school. She had such a skewed idea of her own parents, as if they didn't care for her at all. Yet a lot of their actions were because of caring, including when they appeared in the middle of this story. That is one of the elements that I did really enjoy. A young adult story where the parents are present and where they work things out. 

I think my main problem was that I just couldn't really get into Emily as a character to like. Aidan, the alien, didn't really work his cute charm on me either. I did like Bob the further we got into the story however. He gave a more realistic feeling to the whole situation as he didn't just take it at face value. 

All in all not a book that worked for me entirely. However I think if you can like Emily this might be a book that might resonate with you a lot more.

⁣⁣
“Because the most universal language is love, isn’t it? It’s the thing we all understand." 💕⁣⁣
⁣⁣
*I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review*⁣⁣
*⁣⁣
I didn't know anything about the book before reading so I was surprised how much I liked it!😊⁣⁣
⁣⁣
I can't really say anything about the story of the book without spoilers but I try.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Emily was on a plane with his little brother when it crashed in the cold spring of Alaska. The pilot did not know they were on board. They are trying to escape from the "men in black" and send a message to space. But it's cold outside one of them needs antibiotics and they all need shelter. Will they survive?✨⁣⁣
⁣⁣
It's science fiction but you won't learn any science stuff. But you will learn about love, family and the meaning of time - maybe that was a bit science-y but I love what it stands for.❤️⁣⁣
⁣⁣
This book was very adventurous but also sweet. I loved the emotions it made me feel.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
I recommend it to everyone who wants to feel loved, who has lost someone and who don't believe that we shape our future as we want.⁣⁣

I give it 4,5 stars actually. I loved it, but there were too many questions I wanted to be answered which were never answered. But the book can be enjoyed without that knowledge as well actually
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣
⁣⁣

This book took a turn that I was not really expecting, which is silly it seemed so obvious considering the title of the book, but apparently my mind did not connect the dots.

In this book we follow Emily after he recent move to small town Alaska. She loves dancing, ballet specifically, but when her outdoorsy, survivalist parents decide to move, she has to give that all up and focus on fitting in to her new school and town. One day, she finds a boy wandering in the forest and decides to help him find his way back home. She sneaks onto a flight, which crashes and she now must survive the Alaskan wilderness while protecting this boy, and running for the mysterious men chasing after her.

Overall I thought this book was okay. It was very fast paced, with something happening to our characters every few pages. I also thought this book touched on some intersting, but cliche, themes, such as found family, and the importance of love. I think my main problem with this book was, because it was shorter, we didn't get to dive deeply into some of the characters, specifically Aiden. There was so much we could have gone into with his character, and I feel like some potential around his character was lost due to the fast paced, plot driven story.

The story begins with a crash. Emily, clandestine on a freight plane, does not imagine that the plane is crashing and that with her, Aidan, who she claims to be her little brother, is also risking her life. Both come out unscathed and with them also the pilot Bob, who will join them in this adventure. Crashed in the national park in Alaska, in the cold of the snow and glacial temperatures, all three find themselves having to flee from men who are looking for them, men in black. Aidan is not a human being but an alien and ended up on earth by mistake and Emily will try to protect him to allow him to return home.
Will the teenager Emily be able to do it? What will they discover along the way? Will the pilot try to help them? What place will they have to reach to allow Aidan to go home?

Curious plot that immediately attracts the reader even if it promises a lot, putting several cards on the table that, throughout history, however, disappoint. So I have to admit that I wasn't particularly impressed by the reread after reading the book.
The cover is absolutely representative of the story, both for the fact of the moon and for the view of the sky in the middle of the trees. Although there are several versions of the cover, I find that this is the one that best represents it and that, personally, I like best. The title is particular, like being nowhere and at the same time everywhere. Definitely well thought out since Aidan is on earth but not part of it, so appreciated.
Set in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, our young protagonist tries to reach Anchorage to help Aidan, and the era seems to be quite modern, a definitely contemporary story even if a real year is not specified. it is set.

The characters in this story are not many and are rather outlined although they have not fully convinced me in their entirety.
Despite being the key character in this story, Aidan is not what you expect and can't actually get to the reader except for what Emily says. But what the girl says seems to contrast a little with respect to how he presents himself and I was unable to find a real connection with this character nor with the bond that is created between the two if not towards the end.
Emily is a fragile girl, who sticks to Aidan as if she were a lifeline and creates a family bond that has always failed her. He has the strength and tenacity of his father's teachings but tries to make himself accepted by both family and friends. At school something happens that continues to mark her and that she often thinks about. An emblematic character who will guide this story along the snowy path of the Alaska mountains.

The central pivot of this story is Aidan. Being of an alien race and being able to do certain things as well as having characteristics, he entered Emily's heart and at the same time he feels tied to her as a real family member.
The style used is very different from the approach he had in Luna 2, the previous volume, published in Italy for Mondadori, abroad called Satellite. The narrative structure for that volume was with nonlinear punctuation, without capital letters and with a definitely singular style. In this volume we pass in the third person with an absolutely linear structure.

As for the story, I can say that I was not as enthusiastic as I had hoped, especially for the determining factors. Emily is a character who can't quite get there, just like Aidan does. As for Bob, let's just leave it alone.
Emily creates a special bond with Aidan but at the same time also ends up being jealous of her about her parents even if she is not her brother. In addition, all her skills that are offered to her seem almost to be forced and not very inherent in volume. Her father taught her many things but they seem to have been inserted only to be used in this context.

The fact of Emily's parents. Their presence - besides being completely unjustified and completely misleading - is not even explained but minimized with the simple fact "we were worried". Why? This thing left me completely stunned.
The fact that Aidan has strange persuasives that are not fully explained - not even by him - but that at the same time are useless if not to give the message and the final moral. Why not create more action, more moments of contact with those who want to examine it and be able to make it in some way operational and - ESPECIALLY - USEFUL?

The action seems to be there only when the plane crashes and maintains the suspense that something may happen at any moment which is to disappoint the reader because the action is almost non-existent for 60% of the volume. The beauty begins when the final turning point is reached and everything acquires a meaning, even the bond between Aidan and Emily which at first seems almost minimal. In the end, everything seems to be incredibly better than the rest and also managed to excite me.
As for the story as a whole is a Ni, in fact even in the final vote I keep on a sufficiency scarcer than anything else. A daring escape, slow, with stranger events than anything else that, in my opinion, the author was unable to manage as he wanted.

A story that sounds almost like a retelling or a kind of reinterpretation very far from the famous ET, which has failed to hit me as I hoped and, as it was for his previous book. I recommend only to lovers of the genre, not to those looking for an action-packed story but something more focused on feelings and emotions in addition to the fact of the extraterrestrial creature.
Nick Lake keeps the way of the stars, going from the Satellite to the Earth by reversing the parts with the previous volume. Where in Satellite one wanted to go down to Earth now from Earth one tries to return to space. A particular story, a unique journey.
My vote for this book is: 3 stars.

In Nowhere on Earth, the action kicks off the story right away and we find our main characters: Emily, Aiden, and Bob thrust in the frozen tundra of Alaska. Alone in the wilderness they are on the run from the “men in black” while we are presented with flashbacks of Emily’s past. The novel has a slight overall eerie tone as the characters realize how alone they really are. They are left with little to no resources after a disastrous plane crash.

This novel is a Sci-Fi story set among a lush wilderness backdrop. Even though there is a sense of urgency for the main characters, I could appreciate the descriptions of the lush nature. In the midst of the action there were a lot of quiet moments where the reader can take in the true beauty of the tundra. While reading the book I even felt a slight chill reading about the bitter temperature and the frigid snow that lies everywhere. But the descriptions of the mountains and forest sounded so picturesque!

Even though I’ve never seen the film, the book gave me some E.T vibes with the plot of returning Aiden back to his home. He’s a particular little alien, except he takes on the form of a human boy in order to adapt to his surroundings. Though Emily and Aiden come from different worlds I could appreciate the strong bond that was developed between the two. It’s a story about love, family, and finding your place in the universe.

Overall, this is a very fast paced novel and I thought the plot moved forward seamlessly. The survival aspect of the story keeps the readers entertained by the danger around every corner. Ultimately, the book left me with more questions than answers. For me personally, the story feels flat in some parts and I couldn’t connect to the story. It just wasn’t the book for me.

This books is one of the most confusing but one of the most creatively written books I have ever read. I went into this book, like everyone else expecting one thing but was given something totally different. I loved it! But I do feel like there was still so much potential for this novel to be more. What more? I have no idea but I was missing something.

An interesting story with threads of love, family, survival and mystery. This moved at break neck speed and pulled you in, but then seemingly dragged on for the last quarter or so. While a little slow, the ending was satisfying and uplifting. #NowhereOnEarth #NetGalley

Some wilderness survival, some sci-fi, some action, some love, all combined for some fun in this read. I liked that it opened with some action, the flashbacks of when they were home, and the overall tone and heart of the story. Some things felt really easily overcome for three “people” in the wilderness, basically unprepared, but it wasn’t enough to hurt my enjoyment level.

I think this would be perfect for fans of When Light Left Us, by Leah Thomas.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I read another space book by Nick Lake last year (Satellite) and really enjoyed it, mostly because of the formatting (lowercase) and short chapters. Not to mention some of the difficult decisions the young main protagonist had to make and deal with. "Nowhere On Earth" wasn't as exciting, but it still posed some great questions.

The beginning of the book roped me in because there were no clear answers to any of the questions that arose: who or what was Aidan? What did she mean when Emily said he wasn't really her brother? Why did she burn down a portion of her school? And so on. I was hooked for the first 25%, but then after the initial moments after the plane crash, I got a bit bored. I thought the middle dragged on a little. But then towards the end, possibly the last 15-20%, my interest was recaptured. I thought it was heartbreaking how Emily had to say goodbye, but it was done in a believable way in the context of the story. The mysterious and sinister government man, Mr. Smith, was a neat character, and I kind of wish he was introduced earlier.

All in all, "Nowhere On Earth" was a decent read. Except for a few specific moments, there wasn't very much action. There was definitely some mystery and suspense, and I did love how Emily could clearly handle most situations.

Nowhere on Earth was a fun, adventurous read. I will not spoil too much because all you do need to know before picking up this book is in fact: Emily and her brother survive a plain crash and are then being hunted.

Mysterious, I know. To know what this is all about you will have to read it.

The book is fast paced and exciting and action filled. For some reason, however, I did not manage to connect with the protagonist, Emily, at all, which became a problem because the book is written from her perspective and focuses a lot on her inner monologue, her thoughts and feelings, which had me sometimes a little exasperated.

I absolutely enjoyed the plottwist e.g. the answer to WHY they are being hunted. I think finding that out was my very favourite thing about this novel and I liked it considerably better from that point on. Overall, I did enjoy it and even though the ending was satisfactory, I felt like there should have been more. I can't really pinpoint my finger on it but I felt like after the whole running-from-men-with-guns thing, there would be more of a climax and that was kind of missing for me.

Nevertheless, I recommend this to anyone who likes fast and easy adventure stories and has fun with a good survival trope. It also helps if you like a bit of sci-fi next to your gathering-of-firewood.

I am usually not the type to read survival novels, but this sounded interesting to me. It's not the type of book for me and I honestly didn't think much happened in the first 30 percent of this novel and I was putting myself in a reading slump from trying to push through so I'm going to pass on the opportunity to finish this novel.

Emily Perez's life had been in a muddle since her family moved from Minnesota to a small town in Alaska. In Minnesota, she had a reachable goal in life; to be a professional dancer. In Alaska, she could only morn her losses: no dance studio, no teacher, and no partner. There was a new high school, though! It had cheerleading, which, to a dancer like Emily, was a massive step-down. Worst of all was the ass grabbing football player. Brad, the empty-headed, was sure he could intimidate Emily into going to the Junior Prom with him. That made her a little crazy. In need of a bit of revenge, she set fire to Brad's very flammable letterman jacket. Sadly, the coat wasn't all that burned that day. The little extra taking part in the conflagration was the boy's locker room. So. There she was at home, immediately after the suspension, the threats of prosecution and her mom's ranting, when something strange occurred. Sounds of breaking branches and big thump, much like a ninety-foot tall pine falling to earth, had Emily up and outside to see what the devil was going on. In the woods behind her home, amid the destruction, she met Aidan, and life would never be the same again.

"Nowhere On Earth" is the kind of book that you read time and again. And Emily Perez is a modern teen whose courage, humor, leadership, and skills will win your heart. I recommend this beautifully written story to everyone who appreciates a tale of bravery and determination in the face of an implacable enemy.

I received an advance proof of this novel through the auspices of NetGalley and publisher Alfred A. Knopf for review purposes.

I am in awe of this book. It’s a story of a teenager who feels her parents don’t love her, the local jock thinks he owns her and the one thing she loved most is now out of her reach.
Just when she thinks it couldn’t get any worse she meets Aiden and her whole world changes. What happens next is a journey in survival and Emily would do anything to keep Aiden safe and get him back home.
Aiden shows Emily just how much love there is in her life and that her future is anything she wants it to be.
This story is not what it seems, but the take home message is powerful.

Nowhere on Earth was a surprise to me as I wasn’t sure what it was about going in. It turned out to be one of the sweetest stories I’ve read in ages! Emily and her little brother Aiden are stowaways on a small mail plane which is heading to Anchorage, Alaska, from a very small town in rural Alaska when the plane crashes.

Emily, Aiden, and Bob the pilot have to survive the freezing cold, the bears, avalanches, and... the men in white who are trying to kill them.

Emily was a wonderful character as she does everything possible to keep her little brother alive and safe. She does the same for the pilot as the three trek miles through the Alaskan wilderness. Along the way, the three share their stories and bond over their journey.

I loved this! I loved the characters, and the survival aspects. I adored how much Emily loved her little brother!

This was an action packed story and a quick read which I devoured in a day. I have read and enjoyed another of Nick Lake’s books, Satellite, so when I saw this one, knew I had to read it as well. I’m so glad I did!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Books / Random House for the advance copy!*

I thoroughly enjoyed this! I wasn't expecting to if I am being honest. I wanted to try something different and this ended up being a great choice. I loved Aiden!! And of course, anything that takes place in Alaska in fantastic!!

My Review: If I can describe this book in one single word it would be: weird. So weird, but in a really good way, in a sci fi, paranormal loving kind way. After reading the first chapter, I thought.. ok I see where this is going.. uh no.. It took a turn and I just kept having so many questions. Lucky for me the story looped and closed really nicely. I had a lot of “aha” moments, of understanding, but also a lot of emotion. It’s about what it means to love, and how far you’re willing to do to protect those you love. It’s a gentle, yet a fast paced story full of detail, and I recommend it to all sci-fi readers, and all who enjoy a not so typical love story.

A plane crash. A burned down locker room. An alien. All on an Alaskan mountain. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but this is the captivating start of Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake a book that blends adventure, science fiction, and realistic fiction.

Emily was uprooted from her life as a dancer in Minnesota so that her parents could build their dream life in Alaska. Emily hates everything about it – the small high school, the aggressive football players, and the fact that she has to do cheerleading as there is no dance studio in town. After being pushed just a bit too far, Emily accidentally burns down a locker room at school and is suspended. On her way home, feeling that her situation cannot get any worse, she meets Aidan – an alien taking the form of a little boy – who crashed his spaceship and needs to find a way back to his family. Propelled by her own desire to leave the one-coffee-stand town that she she now calls home, Emily becomes determined to get Aidan to Anchorage so that he can communicate with his home planet and (hopefully) be rescued. What she does not expect – and cannot predict – is that the plane she hides on will crash in an Alaskan mountain, she will be chased by government agents with guns, and she will have to fight against nature in order to get Aidan home. This fast-paced book has layers of compassion, suspense, and adventure, and is a book like none other.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.

This review contains spoilers.

You’ve probably heard me say this before: I tried to like this book. I really tried. Every aspect of this book were nickels in my gumball machine, and in my excitement, I neglected to note that each ball smelled faintly of feet and armpit sweat before popping them into my mouth for the unfortunate mouthful.

To wit, this book sucked.

The story starts with a plane crash. Emily and her little brother Aidan have stowed away on a cargo plane heading out into the Alaskan bush, and the pilot has no idea they’re inside his cargo hold. Shortly after surviving the crash, Bob, Emily, and Aidan are met with a helicopter and gunfire from government agents. Bob takes a shot in the arm, and the trio use leverage from the broken plane wing to ride down the mountainside like a giant sled. Then it’s a matter of survival in the wilderness and early near-Arctic spring to help Aidan get home. Cuz he’s an alien.

Some added internal tension comes about because Emily caught the boys’ locker room on fire at her school just before she stowed away in Bob’s plane, and we don’t know why. SO! The set up works. It could have been really interesting. Survival stories always get me clenched up in stress, and you throw in dodging bullets, you’ve got me sold. That’s how I ended up requesting this in the first place.

But…sadly, no. A lot of tiny wrenches ended up in the cogs and overwhelmed the works like those tiny bugs on wind turbines.

The characters. The lack of things happening probably wouldn’t have been such an issue if the characters had been more than two dimensional. Emily starts out the story as a girl who doesn’t understand her parents (granted, she’s sixteen), hates that she moved to Alaska, and is not at all happy to have traded ballet for cheerleading. By the way, we’re not given a super solid reason why she can’t go to dance in a different town nearby, or if there’s a dance studio in town…now that I think about it, I don’t even remember the name of the town where she lived. And it definitely doesn’t help that we’re not given a solid idea as to which cardinal direction they head so they can end up in Anchorage.

Anyway.

Emily stays the same. Bob stays the same. Emily’s parents get about as much filling out as a half-price taco. And I’ll get to Aidan later. Oh, will I get to Aidan. One of the things Aidan the alien can do is get living things to protect him by appearing small and helpless, basically a baby in their species. He then implants false memories so that these people/animals don’t question how he’s suddenly appeared. But when Emily’s parents treat him like their child, she feels strangely jealous suddenly, as if they’ve never loved her. And she says a few times that her parents never hug her, but I feel as though that’s inherently untrue, as she has no attachment issues or emotional instability. She’s a perfectly normal teen. And later on, they’re shown to hug her and care for her. Like…make up your mind. Either her parents are neglectful and want nothing for Emily but what they think she should do, or they’re supportive and she’s being dramatic.

I guarantee you, it’s the second one. Because when her parents show up to rescue the trio later on, and they ask her why she ran away, she points out these things: they like a bunch of things that she doesn’t and they make her do them (which yes, they’re her parents, it’s kind of a thing that just happens), she didn’t want to move to Alaska, she didn’t have friends in school, and she doesn’t feel listened to.

Girl. No.

This is where my line fell for Emily. She went from being a flat teenage stereotype to an entitled brat who had no idea how privileged she was. From then on she just sounded more and more whiny, and that didn’t change throughout the rest of the book.

And now, Aidan. Oh, Aidan. We’re told that any creature who sees him has an instinctive need to protect him and keep him safe. We see this with Emily, with Emily’s parents, and with the bear in the forest. Even with Bob. But for some reason the government agents chasing them are immune to this power? And even though Aidan didn’t touch their faces or hands to tell them he’s an alien, they somehow know that he’s an alien? For Emily and Bob to realize what he was, he had to show them his true form, but apparently it wasn’t necessary for the men chasing them into the wilderness to see it because they know what he is.

And why was Aidan so susceptible to the cold? That’s never clarified.

And why does his dialogue fluctuate between “normal kid” and “alien child”?

The thing that bothered me most about Aidan was the trope he became: the perfect problem-solving child. No problem was too big for him to fix. No obstacle stood in his way–when he felt like leaping over it. Most of the book seemed to depend on Aidan’s attitude toward whatever they were facing. And for a book that was nearly 300 pages, nothing much happens.

The plane crashes. The trio heads into the wilderness. There’s an avalanche. They find a cabin and eat stuff. Emily’s parents show up. They make it to Anchorage. They contact Aidan’s family. Aidan leaves. Emily and her family go home. The end…

Except.

EXCEPT.

A glaringly, blatantly impossible plot point is what Emily’s ballet career hinges upon. When she showed Aidan how she danced, they were in the cabin in the wilderness. They had ditched the SPOT tracker that would help locate them. Bob was healing from being shot in the arm, asleep in the cabin. But somehow a video turns up that Bob filmed of Emily dancing by the lake with Aidan.

(Of course, since no one else saw his true form, he’s not in the video and no one can see him. Because of course.)

Bob didn’t have a camera. Bob didn’t have a cell phone. Either the author is just not a good writer, or Bob is a cyborg.

Then we learn why Emily caught the boys’ locker room on fire: a creepy football player hit on her. She said no. He left. She got upset and went to burn his football jersey. The locker room caught on fire (?).

Listen. I never said this book made sense. I warned you it was bad.

Nowhere on Earth tries to be five or six books all at the same time. I get it, unwanted flirting sucks. But guess what. Brad walked away. He didn’t grope her. He didn’t stick his tongue down her throat. If you’re going to make a statement about sexual assault or harassment, maybe don’t squeeze it into a poorly-constructed tale about ET and the Alaskan wilderness. Unfortunately for Nick Lake, I’m currently reading The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis, and have just finished reading both The Grace Year by Kim Liggett and listening to Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee. Concerning Lake’s attempt at a social message, he done goofed.

On a petty note, the punctuation in this book drove me nuts. In five or so lines that were littered with commas and dashes, we had four colons and a semicolon. This isn’t an academic paper. Prose only ever requires complicated punctuation if you’re either A) Victor Hugo, or B) F. Scott Fitzgerald. And you ain’t, chief. You ain’t. Not even Jane Austen used this many colons and dashes in the span of a page. For anyone wondering, YES, I do have OCD that targets punctuation and its use. And I hate it.

ALSO. STOP BREAKING UP YOUR DIALOGUE WITH ELLIPSES. JUST STOP. It doesn’t effectively indicate a pause, it just makes your writing more stilted and awkward than it needs to be.

Just…I’m so disappointed. This was terrible. I expect more from an author who’s written four or five books. I won’t be reading Nick Lake again.

Nowhere On Earth by Nick Lake was an enjoyable read that I was able to finish in about two days reading time. I loved adventure and survival stories when I was younger, and this one did not disappoint. I was not expecting the curveballs that we were thrown, and I found myself reading because I desperately needed to know what was going to happen - were they going to make it to the facility, was Aidan going to make it home?

There were a few questions that I wish had been resolved, but I think that works for the way this story was shaped. Like Aidan, some things are not knowable. Emily, our main character, read a lot like a teenage girl to me, representing what it was like when it really felt like no one liked you, not even your own parents, even though it's clear to others that they do. She did not always make the wise decisions, couldn't always see past what teenage instincts were telling her, and that was realistic to me. She was not easy to trust the pilot, either. It's frustrating in novels when a character who has no reason to simply immediately trusts a stranger.

I will definitely be recommending this book to teens at my library who want a fun read about family and siblings!

This one completely confused me..

We are thrown into this mysterious, confusing situation where two siblings are stowaways within a plane crash. They are characters that we don't even know if we can trust, and their reliability is 100% in question. 

From there, the plot continues to get weirder and weirder until finally I was so intrigued I had to finish. 

It's a YA SciFi story that will leave you guessing while also suppling a survival story. The story itself is definitely unique, so I highly recommend going into it blind just as I have. I think that if it wasn't so captivating, that I would have probably DNF'd this a short way through. 

Overall, it was a drawn out book that just took a huge chunk of the book to really know what could be going on. A 3 out of 5 stars.