Unfortunately, there were a few elements of this book that I think won't work for many readers. The book starts out with a prologue following two teenage half siblings who are driving cross country to escape abusive parents. They are both reflecting on the life they've lived and everything that is to come. I loved it and it set the scene for what felt like an indie movie.

We quickly lead into the core story of the book, where we follow multiple people experiencing aliens arriving to Earth. At first I was intrigued, but then quickly realized that the story did not have a clear plot. It felt like less of a story and more just generic reports on what random people were doing and thinking about in regular days of their lives. Even while the news were claiming an apocalypse, and the aliens arrived, none of the characters really reacted all that much anyway. I think this could've been really good and maybe would've improved if there was a clear way that their stories intersected, but by the 30% my interest had been lost, so it was a DNF for me.

Unfortunately I didn't finish this book. 2 stars because there were a few funny bits in what I didn't manage to read but I just really wasn't gripped enough to continue

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review!

I unfortunately could not finish this book. The synopsis did not seem to accurately match the content, especially in the first few chapters; I expected something light-hearted and ended up with something heavier than what I was looking for when requesting this ARC. A lot of characters are thrown at you, and I personally had a lot of trouble keeping track of who was who. I also couldn’t help but notice a formatting issue when trying to read it on a Kindle device; some of the lines randomly stopped mid-screen, and the chapters started in the middle of the page, without any kind of page break separating it from the previous chapter. I think that this book simply isn’t for me at this time, but I would like to come back and give it another shot when I am more in the mood for it!

Let me start by saying that, overall I enjoyed On Earth as it is on Television because of how unique and, at times, bizarre this story is. We follow three different characters who lead fairly monotonous lives and how they respond to UFOs appearing over major cities across the globe. It took me several weeks to get through this book because of the abrupt change of pace with each of the three stories; by the time I was interested in what one of the characters was doing, the perspective changed. This book is not for you if you do not like reading from multiple perspectives.

By the halfway point in this book, it becomes clear why these three are the stories that we are following. And when that becomes clear, I was hooked. Even though this is about aliens arriving on Earth, they leave almost as suddenly without any contact. This, in my mind, would be worse than an invasion because of the uncertainty of what they want, and Emily Jane captures that well through how characters respond. Some ignore it and continue floating in their pool, some throw welcoming parties, and some are more concerned with the secrets their spouse keeps. The focus is on how humans respond to that and the effect it has on the characters’ relationships.

This book was a unique exploration of what it means for humans if we are not alone in the universe. The stories we follow are both bizarre in what happens and mundane in how very human their responses are. Some questions remain unanswered, like why this alien race is so obsessed with cats, but how unique this story is and how Emily Jane chose to tell it makes this book worth a read.

This was such a fun, unusual read that was simply refreshing. What do aliens, plastic, bacon, cats, and cheese have to do with each other? You find out in this hilariously odd exploration of aliens interacting with the people of Earth.

It took me a little while to get into the story, but once I gave myself enough time to read in a larger block of time, I was completely absorbed in this story.

If you want something light hearted and absolutely unique to read this summer, this is it! I don't want to give anything away but I'm all for the peets and beans.

This book had me at the title to be honest, I didn’t need to know anything else about it! And luckily it was every bit as delightful as the title suggests. It's an alien invasion story like none you’ve ever read, where the arrival of alien life has people referencing Independence Day to imagine what might happen next. It manages to be laugh-out-loud hilarious while also gently probing (as all aliens must) some existential philosophy that you may not expect, and it leaves you warm and grateful for life. What more could you want? Genuinely warm, original and properly funny.

This sci-fi story is absolutely bonkers. Disparate characters and stories break the book into odd pieces but eventually it all starts to meld and smooth out. If you're patient (or like cats) you will be satisfied in the end.

I requested this purely for the excellent title. And I was really pleased to find it to be a funny and clever sci-fi romp. Aliens appear and we dip in and out of 3 characters experiences of what happens next.
There's genuine humour throughout, particularly the parts focused on the cats (and the children's obsession with them). I loved that there was a full explanation and you weren't left wondering what was going on, this is the type of novel that really benefits from loose ends being tied up. So glad I requested this, and shocked this is a debut!

8/10

Thank you NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for this ARC.

I feel like the victim of a bait-and-switch scam. I was told we would investigate "big questions" about "what does it mean that we're not alone" and "what it means to be alive in the twenty-first century". This is certainly promised by the back cover blurb and implied by the vaguely Scripture reference in the title. I would be all over such a story. But that story is barely alluded to in the first half of the book and humorously dismissed by the latter half.

To kick things off we're driving through a snowstorm with politely bickering siblings who have no business being out in such a storm and aren't very good company for anybody. No aliens. No spaceships. No humor.

Skip forward twenty years. Giant alien spaceships appear over major cities for a while and then disappear without making contact or seeming to do anything. Get ready for the big questions - not. The energy of the book goes into examining the mundane. A rocky marriage with bratty children. A girl with a bad boyfriend and odd stepfather. A survivalist who might make things happen, just disappears instead. There should be more clues that the odd behavior could be related to the alien visitors, rather than just odd people acting oddly. Everyone just comes off as confused, including the reader.

Then there are the cats. About the time we start getting revelations (hint: there are aliens among us), the cats start acting oddly, too. We even get a few scenes from a cat viewpoint. And then we don't. We just see the cats from the human point of view. At least things are happening in the last half of the book and the pace picks up. There seems to be a plan, even if the reader doesn't understand it any better than the characters. If I had not committed to writing a review of this book, there's a good chance I would have set it down before things got more interesting and marked it DNF. But I did stick with it and enjoyed some of the absurdity and alien life conjectures of the second half.

With a more conventional story presentation and compelling questions in the first chapters, I might have given this book at least 4 stars. But the rambling paragraphs, jumbled structure, barely sympathetic characters, dangling plot lines and wrap-it-up-in-a-bow ending force me to knock off at least a star. I think the author was going for Close Encounters of the Third Kind crossed with Third Rock from the Sun with some cat-lady spice. But I don't think she pulled it off.

Another ARC I just couldn't finish. The story was going along fine, a bit dull and drawn out but not badly enough to put the book down, when we get a chapter from the cats perception. That's a big no for me. I enjoy some light sci-fi and fantasy but that's too far for me.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Its just too bad my honest review is don't bother.

What would aliens appreciate most about Earth? Turns out it’s the little things like bacon, candy, plastic and especially TV. This is a fun novel that seems lightweight in the telling but really focuses on family issues foremost, from adultery to step-relations to siblings to true love and numerous others. It’s a serious novel that feels like a romp and cats play a prominent, if mysterious, role.

I found this book entertaining and the variety of story lines and characters was compelling. It seemed to wander at times and I did find the different story lines confusing in the beginning. It’s much more complex than I expected and than the title led me to imagine. It’s unique and a book I expect to remember for a long time.

A fun, original take on an alien invasion story with clever characters and interesting voice. The writing is sharp and intelligent with great social satire.

This is a really solid debut novel by Emily Jane and I really hope to read more from her soon. Overall I wish I could rate it a bit higher because I enjoyed the concept and the voice that Jane gives to her characters but the pacing was pretty slow and it was difficult for me to stay focused on the story unfolding before me. I do think that there are a lot of great aspects in this book and I cannot wait to read more from Emily Jane in the future.

From the cover art, and the blurb written by the publisher, you would think this little novel is all about TV and aliens coming to earth. You would only be partially right.

The story starts with a bang, and three scenarios/sets of characters; a brother rescuing his half-sister from a mean stepfather, crashes their car off the side of a mountain in a blizzard. Later, he wakes up from a 20+ year coma.

Then there is a hapless husband/father of two kids and a wife who seems to be extraordinarily smarter than he is. The kids are of indeterminate age and from the dialogue I assumed they were 3 and 5, but then we learn they attend school and talk about mathematics, so who knows. They are written to be as annoying as the husband/father is dim-witted.

Finally we have a nineteen year old girl who lives in luxury with her Mom, stepbrother and wealthy TV producer stepfather. She is self-centered, spoiled and thoroughly unlikeable.

Spaceships come and hover silently over several major cities around the world. Then they leave. Then cats everywhere suddenly can speak telepathically to some of the humans. Then nothing happens; I was bored to tears for the next however many chapters, until I was about halfway through the book. I couldn't take it anymore and put it down.

Several days later I picked it back up, determined to not let this thing defeat me. I managed to finish it (mainly because I skimmed a LOT of the paragraphs by reading the first and last line of each) and it was just ok.

If you think you are going to read all about aliens and their reaction to TV, you aren't. Not until the last chapter or so. If you like cats, you will probably enjoy this, though.

I kinda went into this blind, only wanting it for its title (which I love!). Its a bit sci-fi and a bit pro cat propaganda which I also loved!

One day the aliens arrive. And then they leave. The story follows several characters and how they deal with the knowledge that we are not alone in the universe. Its hard to choose a favourite protagonist as they are all so well written and have so much depth to them.

The book touches on themes like racism and acceptance of people as they are and it's done beautifully. It's a very easy story to get pulled into. I'll definitely be on the look out for more by the author in future.

This was way more literary than I expected! Based on the title, description and cover, I expected it to be a little silly but entirely fun. It was fun, but it was also well-written and explores some big concepts: confrontation with the end of the world, what it means to love, and being a stranger in a strange land.

I think the description sells this one short. This is heartfelt and weighty, and although there are some silly things that happen, this isn't a light, fluffy novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue!

This was a weird one, as within the first 20 pages I was convinced that all the characters were too stupid to live. Our main character refers to his wife consistently as “the wife” which is one of my deepest irritants. Their children are feral.

In the spirit of finishing the story, I persevered. Somewhere along the way, this whacko story came together and almost began to make sense. I began to root for the main characters despite myself, and just figured they had the kids that they deserved. Okay, that’s not very nice, but . . .

So in a strange way, this was a very imaginative story. You just have to suspend any vestige of belief and let it roll. The whole cat thing was super bizarre, very much in keeping with the general peculiar nature of the world-building.

In conclusion, I was left shaking my head but glad for the kind-of resolution and the fact that this family and our society was still standing. 3 stars.

I thank Ms. Jane, Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley for this ARC.

In this debut work by Emily Jane, aliens arrive and depart without saying a word, throwing the inhabitants of Earth into varying degrees of existential crisis.

There was a lot I loved about this book. Parts of it read as a love letter to humanity, with the mundane being elevated to things magic and wonder. The author clearly has a love of cats, and it was a pleasure to see that explored. Told from the perspective of multiple characters, all with their own complex journeys, the book beautifully tugs on the heart strings and a few times had me tearing up.

All of that said, it is only a four star book for me. Sometimes, the 'internet speak' around the cats got on my nerves, as did the two kid characters we have throughout the book. I recognize that the kids are written to be a little annoying, but at times it felt a tad heavy-handed to me. I found myself skimming anything involving the children, while chapters that focused on the adult characters really held my interest.

Overall, I feel this is a pretty solid book. I like the ways it explored what humanity could mean to other cultures and how we as a society would handle aliens--from the ultimate doomsday preppers to the overindulgent. It's a very sentimental story, but it never crossed the line into overly sappy. I definitely see myself recommending them to friends who enjoy 'sci-fi light,' though with the caveat that the internet cat speak and the children can be a bit much.

At its heart, On Earth as It Is on Television is really a story about family. And cats. Sure, there are aliens along the way, but it's more about what makes a family a family and why at the end of it all, that's all that really matters. Humans, aliens, cats, we're all full of chonky goodness.

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I would have enjoyed this book more if I were a cat person.

Well, that and I felt that the strengths played up in the description/title of the book were not present in a substantial way. If this were a meal, those flavors were overpowered, and I didn't get to enjoy the flavors I was anticipating.

The description and title made me think there would be some interesting exploration of aliens, television, and "what it means to be alive in the twenty-first century" (quoted from the description). To be fair, there was some of this in here, but I didn't get any of that until the book was halfway done. After that point, where there were some revelations that caused the characters to bring up some good points, the plot kept barrelling forward.

Mostly this is a book about 2.5 families and how they react to the news that aliens have arrived and how they all cope with the circumstances. It's a pretty straightforward and enjoyable book (hence the three stars) and has plenty of fun scenes. Early on, there is a doomsday prepper character that hits a little bit too close to reality, and cats definitely feature prominently. If you're a cat lover, you will certaintly enjoy the role they have to play in this story.

Overall, this book was enjoyable, but did not do enough to distinguish itself for me.