This is the true recollection of the author’s nightmares and memories concerning alien abduction. The reader is taken through an explanation of the term ‘screen memory’ and from there it is a chronological recollection of events from the youngest years of her life through her mid-20s. The author ends the book with her personal take on what the memories mean for her personally and what her experiences could portend on a larger scale.
So to be up front, I am a skeptic about everything supernatural, extraterrestrial, spiritual, etc. I like to experience things first hand or at least have a solid body of evidence. I don’t need to fall off a 20 foot cliff to understand that gravity will take hold if I step off the ledge, but I do like me some science and facts backing nearly everything. OK, so with that out of the way I said yes to reviewing this book because the author also writes science fiction and I thought it would be very interesting to see how, if at all, her personal experiences color her fiction writing.
Over all, it was an interesting experience listening to this book. I have never chatted with someone who believed they were the subject of an alien abduction, let alone a series of abductions that lasted perhaps 2 decades. The author let’s the reader know up front that she hasn’t spoken with physicists or extraterrestrial experts about her memories. Instead, she dug through the available literature on the subject and newspaper articles from the relevant time periods and locations. With that said, she does cite sources such as an episode of the TV seriesUnsolved Mysteries to bolster a certain point. Unsolved Mysteries isn’t known for its quality fact checking. Also, some coincidences I feel could be explained by several things other than alien abduction and I felt the author didn’t really rule these out.
I did have to set my skeptical brain aside in order to simply experience the book. As unjust as this sounds, if this book had been labeled ‘science fiction’ I probably could have sat back and enjoyed it as a story. The author does a good job of letting the readers know what she now clearly remembers (many of her memories were buried under screen memories or laid dormant for decades) and what they signify. I think this book could be an excellent resource for fiction writers researching alien abduction accounts.
Towards the end, the author warns the reader that she’s going to get a little preachy concerning where she thinks alien contact is going and what that means for Earth. She does get preachy, but I can’t fault her with that fair warning in place. She makes several biblical references and how that ancient book might have foretold the coming age of open alien encounters. Then, she gives a personal bit about how her husband and family view her memories. I found this last bit a little poignant and the most personal part of the book.
With all that said, I look forward to delving into the author’s science fiction works.
I received a copy of this book from the author at no cost (via theGoodReads Audiobooks Group) in exchange for an honest review.
The Narration: Allie Mars, which is a voice actress name for the author Sharon Delarose, did a fine job with this book. Granted, it didn’t call for much in the way of characters. Yet she got across the emotions of the various chapters without going overboard. I never felt like the author was pleading with me or trying to knock something through my thick skull.