Life Hacks for a Little Alien by Alice Franklin is a moving and unique exploration of the world through the eyes of a child who doesn’t quite fit in. The story follows the narrator, known as Little Alien, a young girl growing up in southeast England who struggles to understand the world in the way other children seem to. Her life changes when she stumbles upon a late-night TV special featuring the Voynich Manuscript—an ancient book written in an undecipherable language. For Little Alien, this mysterious tome represents hope—hope that there might be others like her who feel just as alien in their surroundings.

Convinced that the Voynich Manuscript holds the key to understanding her place in the world, Little Alien and her only friend, Bobby, embark on a quest to find it. What follows is a poignant journey of discovery that will ultimately reshape how Little Alien views herself and the world around her.

Narrated by an unexpected and wise guide, the book offers Little Alien the advice she needs to navigate a world that often feels alien to her. Franklin captures the innocence and confusion of childhood beautifully, crafting a tale filled with humour, heart, and humanity. The voice of Little Alien is full of raw emotion, making her experience both endearing and relatable, even if she views the world differently.

What stands out in Life Hacks for a Little Alien is Franklin’s careful portrayal of the adult characters from Little Alien’s childlike perspective. While Little Alien may not fully understand the complexities of the adults around her, Franklin imbues them with warmth and humanity, reminding readers of the quiet ways in which they too must adapt to a confusing and often overwhelming world.

Touching, insightful, and often heart-wrenching, this is a beautifully crafted story about finding your place, even when you feel out of sync with the rest of the world. Franklin masterfully captures the challenges of being different, while celebrating the joy of self-discovery and friendship. Life Hacks for a Little Alien is a bittersweet journey, bound to leave readers both laughing and wiping away tears as they follow Little Alien on her path to finding a life that fits.

Read more at The Secret Bookreview.

The book is told from the perspective of the inner voice of our protagonist talking directly to her, which in effect feels as though the narration is outlining what is happening to you, the reader, and so you get immersed in Little Alien's life from the get-go. It is a confusing, maddening, illogical maze of unreliable, nonsensical (to her), and unnecessary rules, and she tries so very hard to conform and comply, but a lot of the rules are unspoken and unknown.
The grown-ups in Little Alien's life are not always kind or accommodating of her idiosyncrasies.
It doesn't take us long to realise Little Alien is a wonderful little human with a fascinating neurodivergent brain that quickly becomes fascinated with the vagaries of human languages.
I loved this book and immediately went to discover what other treats Alice had written. Teeny bit disappointed to find this is her debut novel, so I'll have to wait a while...

I have to confess that I was a little disappointed when I opened this up and found it was written in the second person. I'm not someone who eschews writing unless it's in my preferred tense or person. I like to think I'm open minded in this respect but the second person is my least preferred point of view. Anyway I soon got over this. Life Hacks For a Little Alien concerns a young autistic girl trying to find her way through life. Like many autistic people she thinks of herself as an 'alien' unable to understand the language and customs of those around her. She studies language intensively to try to help herself and in this way begins to muddle through life. The text is full of information about language and in particular the unnamed protagonist's obsession with the Voynich Manuscript, a medieval document of drawings and words which has yet to be deciphered. I was thrilled when I googled this and found that it actually exists. Reading about it I can quite see how someone would become obsessed with this,

In the end I found that I loved this book. It's full of humour and there were points where I laughed out loud. The references to language are fascinating and there are little touches like the recommended reading lists at the end of each chapter which are brilliantly well done. It's not perfect, what book is? The ending is a little abrupt and as someone who was professionally involved with autism and its diagnosis I found the scene where two professionals visit to start the 'initial assessment' of the child somewhat unbelievable, In this scene they ask the child questions clearly meant for her parents. Questions such as 'Was it a normal birth? A vaginal or Caesarian birth? Were you breast-fed or bottle-fed?' While the child's confusion makes for entertaining reading, for me it was totally off-beam. However this aside, I whole heartedly recommend this book as something which helps give an insight into what it is like to be a neurodivergent child. The scenes of her early school life where she hasn't;t a clue what's going on .are heart-rending and I think will be very reminiscent of what actually happened for some children. I think things have improved in schools, I certainly hope so but anyone struggling to understand an autistic child would do well to read this book bearing in mind of course that no two autistic children are the same. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I could not decide what I thought of this book - it was a compelling read in many respects but did not entirely work for me.

The story centres around a little girl who struggles to be understood - she is likely to be on the autism spectrum - who develops an obsession with the Voynich Manuscript. She feels unconvinced it is written by aliens who like her feel they are from another planet. Together with her only friend, Bobby, they decide to visit London to see the real manuscript and find out more.

The adults around her are seen from her perspective - her mum suffers from mental illness and her dad is barely holding the family together - they certainly do not understand their daughter.

It is poignant to read about her daily struggles to be understood and to fit into a world which does not accept her differences.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characterisation and how sympathetically each character was treated. The story follows a young (unnamed) protagonist from the age of 4.5 to her mid teens. I really enjoyed her neurodivergent voice and it was extremely relatable to anyone who doesn’t feel like she quite “gets” social situations. It was a really interesting viewpoint of the world and I would love to read more by this author in the future.

Life Hacks for a Little Alien is about a young girl who feels like she is different to everyone else. She is removed from her school as they can't cater to her needs. Reading between the lines, she has some form of neurodivergence. This was an ok read and a fairly short book but it didn't reach its full potential.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. I thought it was an interesting insight into the mind of someone neurodivergent from childhood and onwards into adolescence. Reading was something difficult as our main character was constantly described as being “stupid” or “different” when, clearly, she wasn't. I'm sure this is a feeling many people can relate to, I know I could.

It is a story about finding your interest and keeping true to yourself even though everyone around you is trying to force you into a role you cannot fill but going past that and embrace your own individuality. A very hopeful book, in a way.

Beautifully written.

Witty and warm, Life Hacks for A Little Alien, is a wonderfully absorbing read. Loved the style, loved the neuro-divergent voice, loved the insight into this particular character's view of the world, At times painful, at times heartwarming and at all times engaging.

Language is at the very heart of this book. We follow a neurodivergent girl from an early age to her teens and who comes to think of herself as Little Alien. She doesn't understand the world the way other people do and has her obsessions. The narrator tries to help her navigate through a very complex world.

She totally gets into the Voynich Manuscript - a book with a language no one understands - as it gives her hope she is not the only one from a different planet. Her friend Bobby and Little Alien find out the book is in London and go on a day trip to see it. A day that changes their life and the lives of a few other characters.

It's a funny book that shows that being different doesn't have to be that odd. One of the questions this book raises for me is: what is normal? There are a lot of grown-ups who look normal and say normal things, but then do things that are weird like her parents, her friend Bobby's mum, her teachers... I don't want to give away too much, so you'll have to read the book for that. But it's what these characters do that lingered in the back of my head.

I love the perspective the book is written in. You just feel how grown-ups can't deal with a child thar's different. As in my own childhood -I was late with walking and cycling- people assume Little Alien is stupid. It's all rather unfair.

Thank you NetGalley and Quercus Books - riverrun for the ARC

Couldn’t finish it, I began reading this in the hopes
It would give me insight to my own autistic
Child but it just made me a bit sad as I felt the child came across as a touch neglected.
DNF not for me but will give 3 stars as don’t think it’s fair to give lower to a book I haven’t fully read

As someone who has neurodivergent loved ones and who was fascinated by the Voynich Manuscript, I liked the author’s witty and honest accounting of her experiences.

A lovely book about words and feelings and being different socially. Well, aren't we all a bit different? When is this going to be less of a problem in society? When are we going to realize we have so much more in common than we differ and that we are all facing a very difficult world?

Books like these make me realize that perhaps there is a tiny bit of hope that one day people will see each other as that: fellow human being in the midst of it all. I need to hang to that flimsy bit of hope as society can be deafening and demanding. I do feel like an alien, let me admit...

I really enjoyed how Angel found her own way, even if she was stumbling and lost from time to time. The book was warm and it was funny and definitely deserves a place on my being-good-enough shelf on Goodreads, even if it wasn't literally a theme.

Life Hacks For a Little Alien by new to me author A. Franklin. I tried getting into this book, it was just too confusing. Couldn't follow the author's logic.
Blurb: Before she thinks of herself as Little Alien, our narrator is only a lonely little girl living in southeast England, who doesn’t understand the world the way other children seem to. So when a late-night TV special introduces her to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript—an ancient tome written in an indecipherable language—Little Alien experiences something she hasn’t hope. Could there be others like her, who also feel like they’re from another planet?

Convinced the Voynich Manuscript holds the answers she needs, Little Alien and her best (and only) friend Bobby decide they must find this strange book. Where that decision leads them will change everything.

Narrated by an unexpected guide who has arrived to offer Little Alien the advice she’ll need to find her way, Life Hacks for a Little Alien explores a less-usual experience of the world, inviting us into the head of a child who doesn’t read her surroundings the way we might assume. Ringing with voice, humor, and heart, Alice Franklin will have you swinging from stitches to tears on the uneven path to finding a life that fits, even when you yourself do not.

Having worked with many different students, this book made the difficulties of non-typical learners not just visible, it tried to give a feeling of what it must be like not to be able to conform. The author does a good job showing the challenges and the original ways of thinking of such children and shows that there is often an unexpected hidden potential to be discovered. Life is never simple for them and they need to overcome their own anxieties as well as the expectations other people have, and those are more often than not very unclear or unrealistic. Insightfully written, great if you want to get a better understanding of atypical thinking and behaviour.

I have mixed feelings about the novel as it is a very extraordinary book from a number of aspects. First of all the second person narration is quite uncommon, which makes a really interesting storytelling.
The main protagonist is also an unusual heroine. She is a neurodivergent child. She thinks herself an alien (from hence the title of the book) because she feels that she is somehow different from the other people, and thinks it is because she is from a different civilization.
The story is about how the little alien grows up and finds her place in life where she fits in (although the Epilogue turns the things upside down a bit...)
It is a fascinating story, tender and loving. But I found the linguistic musings sometimes too lengthy, although being a teacher of English Literature and Language I was able to follow them. I wonder what a "civilian" can make out of them.
Life Hacks For a Little Alien is an unusual novel which requires time to digest it after you have read it. I can recommend it to anyone who loves books with gravity.

A quirky little read. Enjoyed the second person narration, not something you come across very often and I think it worked really well in this context. Interesting view on what it is to be different and done with compassion too.