Review: Mothership

Book One of the Ever-Expanding Universe
By Martin Leicht and Isla Neal
Available now from Simon & Schuster
Review copy

I wanted to read MOTHERSHIP because all the reviews said it was absolutely hilarious and the title is a pun.  I can never resist a good pun.  Plus I thought the bright, retro cover was super fun.  (It's even cooler in person.  The computer screen doesn't show how much the pink pops against the purple.)

The reviewers were right:  MOTHERSHIP is hilarious.  Sixteen-year-old Elvie Nara's snarky, clever voice carries the novel.  She's three months away from her due date when commandos invade the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers (which is IN SPACE!) and tell the girls that their teachers are aliens.  The chapters alternate between explaining how she got pregnant and the survivors' journey to get off the ship.  (This journey is noticeably unimpeded by the pregnant girls needing to pee, having difficulty maneuvering, or any other issue you might expect to arise due to their physical condition.)

But I couldn't quite gel myself to MOTHERSHIP's breezy tone.  The trouble started when I realized Britta, another girl at the school, was pregnant by the same guy as Elvie.  Naturally the girls hate each other more than Cheater McCan't-Keep-It-In-His-Pants.   Lots of reviewers said sweet-but-dumb Cole grew on them as they read.  But he didn't grow on me, particularly not as I realized exactly how bad of a position "sweet" Cole put Elvie in.

Then there's the fact that the entire book is about young, pregnant women in danger and many of them die in horrible ways.  I love black comedy, but I like my black comedy black.  I don't like dead pregnant teenagers in my snarky one-liner comedy.  Then there's the horrid awfulness that comes as more of the aliens' plans are revealed.  It's invasive and gross and I can't believe none of the girls choose to terminate their pregnancies.  MOTHERSHIP has a novel's worth of consent issues that are addressed for approximately three pages.

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Plus, why are all of them teenagers?  What, the aliens can't impregnate grown women?  It's particularly disturbing since the aliens are older than they look.  Cole's only nineteen, but what if the other baby daddies are older?

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I absolutely loved Elvie and thought-her voice was spot-on.  But she, her father, and best friend Duckie deserve a better plot than MOTHERSHIP offers them.  Martin Leicht and Isla Neal have talent and humor, but the bright spots of MOTHERSHIP are offset by all the times I thought I was going to be sick.