Book Review
Title: It Looks Like Us by Alison Ames
Genre: Young Adult, Horror
Rating: 4.5 Stars
All I knew about It Looks Like Us before getting into it was it was young adult, queer, horror compared to The Thing which I loved especially it’s ambiguous ending and Wilder Girls which I didn’t really enjoy as it was too vague. However, I was excited to see where this book was going to go especially after the let-down that was My Heart is a Chainsaw and I really want some good horror for the spooky season. The opening was interesting as it begins at the end with the destruction of the facility and Riley being picked up and questioned since no bodies were recovered as there should have been six of them. We then learn she was chosen to take part in an Antarctic research project for SladeTech along with Nelson, Ilse, Luke and Dae-sung alongside their chaperone, Asha and the scientist, Greta. For the first day they take samples but quickly Riley and others begin seeing a creature around the facility although no one really talks much notice of this until it begins watching them.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, things are moving very quickly which is to be expected since the whole book takes place over less than a week and we are already into days three and four. After the spotting of the creature although no one not even Asha knows what it is, Greta is sent out to retrieve a shipment coming into the station and Asha seems very secretive over it. After this Riley and Luke who have become close in the past few days notice that Greta is sleepwalking. Initially it is Riley who finds her and Riley thinks she sees something wrong with Greta’s face but Luke doesn’t notice anything different so she writes it off. However, the next day Greta goes missing again and this time when she returns Riley can see there is definitely something wrong with her and she believes that Greta is sick. She quickly deteriorates to the point where she attacks Luke and gets injured in the process before hiding again. Riley, Luke and the others try to track her down, Riley has the best luck tracking Greta into the vents and to the disused side of the station where she sees a strange glowing box which must have been the one Asha was so secretive over when it was brought in. It is obvious to see that Greta has most likely been possessed by the creature although no else has made the connection between the two things yet and I am excited to see where it goes.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Greta is still missing and the group are left to figure out where she is and what to do now especially since Asha seems to have gone AWOL as well. In Asha’s room they uncover many thing specifically documents relating to them and their pasts including their individual arrests and mental health issues along with an email from the man coordinating the project, Anton Rusk letting Asha know that the creature needs to be contained and that everyone including herself is expendable in this mission. They learn that they have been studying the creature for at least a year and it has the ability to transform itself into whatever it eats which means the real Greta is dead and the one running around the facility is the creature in disguise. When Asha returns they learn that she has also been contaminated by the creature presumably through “Greta’s” blood and she attacks Nelson. The others try to help him attacking the creature with everything they can but they also know not to get close because it contaminate them meaning that Nelson is soon taken by the creature leaving four of them behind with no idea how to contain it, fight it or avoid it since the facility is a little maze like especially in the unused part.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the others are now on their own since they have no way of knowing whether Nelson has been taken absorbed by the creature or not. They also have bigger problems since Rusk knows that both Greta and Asha have fallen to the creature and the kids have no hope of stopping it so he is doing his best to prevent them from leaving the facility in order to protect himself. This also changes the interrogation happening to Riley right now in the present since they are working for Rusk and want the truth since they don’t believe her story so there might be something more going on here. Meanwhile, they prepare to eat and sleep in shifts in order to rest before trying to head to another facility, however, on Riley’s shift she hears Nelson speaking to her. He explains that he is one with the creature now and it is allowing him to speak to her because it knows they have no way of beating it which seems to be the case and why they are preparing to run. They take a vote after Dae is injured and decide to head to the closest station even though they know the creature has been there before but Riley is noticing things like when did Ilse get Asha’s phone and how did she know the combination since Asha can’t have been that stupid to have it in her phone the entire time when Rusk could have been watching her like the kids.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was so invested in this story and it seems perfect for the spooky season and I can’t wait to see how Riley ends up being the last one standing and what happens to everyone else. The group end up making the short trip over to the Leviathan Station where they learn it is also owned by SladeTech and Rusk has bought or bribed every station they could possibly get to into not helping them claiming a disease which none of the other scientists are going to want to risk in such an isolated region and in an enclosed space. This means they have no choice but to return to the monster infested station and pray it doesn’t get to them. The kids are smart and are going to try trapping it but Rusk seems to know they are up to more than that since their lives are on the line and prevents them from trapping the creature as he wants it to kill them now and then he will sort out the problem himself and now the race is on to see how Riley ends up the last one standing. Throughout these encounters we can see that Dae isn’t doing well and they barricade themselves in a room to wait out the storm before heading over to one of the nearest station since Ilse lied to them but it might just get Dae the help he needs before it is too late. Obviously, something major is going to go down pretty soon for Dae, Ilse and Luke to not be in the picture when Riley is picked up from the station and questioned by Rusk’s people.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, things are steadily moving towards the climax of the novel but it is being to seem less original. Apart from Riley’s interview happening in the present it is beginning to feel like a copy and paste job of The Thing. I say this because from the creature’s growing intelligence and how it controls and possess the people it takes over is directly like The Thing and then we have a seen where Ilse comes up with a way of detecting whether they are infected in the exact same way they do in the movie and she also comes up with the plan of trying to kill the creature with fire and making a flamethrower with again is identical to the movie. Despite loving the book so far I do have the sinking feeling that the ending of the book might be identical to the movie with the face off between two people potentially Riley and Luke since Dae is dead and Ilse knows she is infected but Luke is missing and it ending with something happening as Riley burns down the station or there could be a really big twist towards the end that I haven’t seen coming at all but I am excited to find out.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Riley’s story comes to a close and we can see the consequences of everything that has happened so far. While I did like the twists and turns the novel took especially towards the end, it wasn’t satisfying for me. I felt there was a lot more that could have been done with the ending but it seems like the author wanted to leave it ambiguous even though she could have stretched this out with another 50-100 pages and it probably would have been the best book I have read all year. If you are a fan of the movie, The Thing, then you definitely need to pick up It Looks Like Us but don’t be fooled by the similarities to the movie since it goes wild in the some place that not even the movie dared to go. I have read two of Alison Ame’s books now and one was ok and one was really good so I am excited to see what she comes out with the in the future especially if it is similar to this or a different form of horror.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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