There’s no damn way anyone going through this chain of events would come to any conclusion other than, “Aliens are among us.” It’s a case of bad writing.Īnother bothersome aspect can probably be explained as a product of the times in which the book was written, the early 1950s. But after being physically attacked by beings who look just like his friends, he attempts to explain it as himself being nutty. The first time this happened, I accepted it as a character trait and a way for the author to prolong the story. He constantly convinces himself that he must be crazy, that all the impossible things he sees are mere illusions. The narrator does it several times, even after discovering multiple “blank” bodies hidden in multiple houses and actually eavesdropping on a cabal of aliens planning the takeover of the town. The characters keep labeling themselves as crazy.

And here is my first problem with the book. So the invasion continues, person after person being replaced while those who catch on are written off and ignored. I think she might be an impostor.” There’s an actual psychiatric disorder that diagnoses this very feeling, Capgras delusion. She’s different in some way I can’t describe. Think about it, a person goes to their doc and says, “My aunt isn’t really my aunt. The invasion is a quiet one, and those who suspect something is amiss are explained away as paranoid or crazy. Alien pod-people replace humans, taking their forms and pretending to be them. More likely than not, you know the premise of this book. Where to start? Let’s begin with the neutral to negative stuff and end on a positive measure. There are aspects of this book I really like, but the parts I hate I seriously hate. My last few reviews have been troublesome, haven’t they? It seems I’ve saved my most troublesome for last. But disliking books you read is part of being a reader, so this year I felt compelled to take the good with the bad.

Last year nearly all of my reading reviews were positive, with a few objections thrown into otherwise complimentary reviews. Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney Reading Review by Michael Channing

Invasion of the body snatchers novel