PRAISE

BookShop’s Most Astonishingly Unconventional Books of 2021

★ “A clever, enigmatic glimpse at first-world alienation.”

—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“A story about alienation, and an indictment of technology. Children who enjoy explaining a story through pictures could come up with some creative dialogue for this story and tie our present-day technology habits to those of the alien-like creatures in this book.”

—SLJ

“This book is it. It’s unflinching in its assessment of human nature, and provides no hopeful ending.”

—SLJ
“A wordless fable for the digital age…Exquisitely detailed, realistic grayscale pencil illustrations pull viewers into the setting, utterly familiar except inhabited by a large cast of mesmerizing (and uniquely designed) alien characters. Employing mostly double-page spreads, Bassi occasionally mixes comic-book-style paneling to control the pacing and artfully varies scale to enhance the storytelling. The best wordless picture books are improved by careful re-readings, where previously unnoticed details provide deeper understandings, and this is one such book, so full of detail and general oddness that readers will demand multiple encounters and lots of time to pore over its finely composed pages.”

—Horn Book 

“One part Shaun Tan, one part Chris Van Allsburg, one part 21st century ennui – this wordless story about isolation and connection in a technology-saturated world (notice the “alienation” title pun) is one of the most visually stunning books of the year.”

—Travis Jonker, SLJ 100 Scope Notes