My Life Among Humans - Jed McGowan

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AUTHOR: Jed McGowan

GENRE: Graphic Novel
RATING: 3.25 Stars.

In a Nutshell: An unusual story with decent artwork. Wasn’t memorable for me though.

A little alien has been sent to Planet Earth to research humans and send back daily reports. He chooses one target human named Will, a nerd video-game designer, and begins observing him. However, one day, Will discovers his unknown stalker and in response, the alien ends up controlling Will’s mind so as to not put his own future in jeopardy. This leads to disastrous consequences, and before he knows it, the alien is controlling a whole load of people. How will this end? Will the humans be able to regain control over their own minds? Will the alien end up destroying everyone?

The story took me by surprise. While certain parts were somewhat guessable given the flow, some elements were quite unusual, and even bizarre. The direction taken by the alien’s character and the ending were definitely the high points of the plot. I love how the alien wasn’t given a typical clichéd role to play. His cute appearance also helps; he reminded me of Mike Wazowski from ‘Monsters Inc.’ movies. The story proceeds at a quick pace, the 96 pages almost breezing by due to many panels having only graphics and no text.

But I found it somewhat weird that not a single human being panicked at the thought of aliens controlling them. The reaction was almost a casual, “There are aliens around”, “Oh, let’s go get them”. Surely at least one person would have screamed in shock or disbelief. If you tell me that there are aliens around me controlling fellow humans, I am gonna freak out for sure; you can count on it!

Moreover, as a reader, when you read of an alien coming to the planet and controlling your mind, you would want to feel sorry for the humans involved. But the writing is such that I felt no connect whatsoever with the humans. (Rather, I had a greater understanding of what the alien felt.)

The graphics are pretty simple. They seem to be digitally painted. The hues are subtle and don’t pop out much. But this works to a minor advantage as the story doesn’t get overshadowed by the illustrations. That said, I wasn’t really a big fan of the human characters who seemed very stiff.

Overall, an interesting graphic novel, but not mind-blowing. Good for a one-time read if borrowed from the library.

My thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “My Life Among Humans”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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