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    Life in Outer Space
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    Life in Outer Space
    Unavailable
    Life in Outer Space
    Ebook277 pages3 hours

    Life in Outer Space

    By Melissa Keil

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A sharp, hilarious, and perfectly observed story of high school geeks falling in true love.
    Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft—and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, worry about girls he won’t.
    Then Camilla Carter arrives on the scene. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his plan. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a plan of her own—and he seems to be a part of it! Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies. But perhaps he’s been watching the wrong ones.
    Author Melissa Keil will have readers falling in love with these relatable characters. Sam’s exceptional voice gives a hilarious and painfully accurate take on high school life.

    Editor's Note

    Young love in Australia...

    "Much like a John Hughes movie, this is a humorous, heartfelt and angst-y romance with the potential to break the gender barrier.” ―Kirkus

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPeachtree Publishers
    Release dateApr 14, 2014
    ISBN9781561457908
    Unavailable
    Life in Outer Space
    Author

    Melissa Keil

    Melissa Keil has lived in Minnesota, London and the Middle East, and now resides in her hometown of Melbourne. Her YA novels, Life in Outer Space and The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl have both been shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year and the Gold Inky awards. 

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    Reviews for Life in Outer Space

    4/5

    48 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great australian YA book about coming of age and surviving in high school. Set in Melbourne and surrounds it was particularly good as i was familiar with many of the locations mentioned and Keil did a great job of brining those locations to life. Very readable with themes of friendship / first love and putting yourself out there. Very Low level violence and some kissing but no swearing or sex. totally suitable for 13 age group. Plus a heap of great movies and bands mentioned throughout the book. I finished reading it and wanted to go to the video store and watch a few.
    • 4/5
      Review originally published on my blog: AWordsWorth.blogspot.comARC provided by publisher for reviewLife in Outer Space is an entirely refreshing and exceptionally entertaining novel about a group of high schoolers who are geektastic. And I do mean geektastic.The ring leader of this little tribe of nomadic geeks (okay, so not really nomadic, but it felt like a fun thing to say) is Sam. If anyone has ever fully embraced his geek-level status, it is Sam. He is a walking guru on all things horror movie and related ("real") movie trivia. Girls? Nah, Sam's not worried about the lack of feminine interest in his geektasmic self -- he's never met a girl who can hold a candle to Princess Leia. Until ... The day a new girl breezes into class, with a funky sense of style and the ability to make friends with everyone. Camilla appears to be everything polar opposite of Sam and his buddies -- but she also really enjoys hanging out with them. Especially Sam. And this means that life as Sam knows it, is officially over.Even though it's an Australian novel, set in Australia, Life in Outer Space is such a teenager story. I think there are huge chunks of growing up that are universal, and some experiences that we can all relate to whether it happens in San Francisco, Middle-o-Nowhere, or Australia. It's just part of life, and that helps bring the human family closer together, ya know? Okay, philosophical wandering aside, we all know what it's like to be a high school student, a teenager, and deal with other teenagers. It's crazy. And wonderful. And terrible. Sam and Camilla, and the whole teen cast of this novel? They're real. They're walking down halls in schools around the globe. And this feeling of realism and authenticity takes this fun and quirky story and gives it added depth. Don't get me wrong, it's still a hilarious read -- I snickered out loud a few times -- but it's not just another high school musical (don't hate: I love those movies).
    • 5/5
      For more reviews, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions.Aussies supposedly write some of the best books out there. Unfortunately, they choose not to share many of them. Okay, maybe it’s that American publishers choose not to purchase them for years on end, but, either way, I end up missing on quite a lot. This little Aussie gem became available in the US, and when I had a chance at a review copy, I snagged it. Be forewarned that this book is not science fiction. That’s lesson number one. Life in Outer Space is an adorable, nerdy contemporary novel about first love, finding your passion, and pop culture references.For much of the novel, I was enjoying it but concerned that Life in Outer Space was headed for manic pixie territory. Camilla arrives in Sam’s school and completely changes his life. She’s beautiful, quirky and somewhat mysterious, the daughter of a famous music critic. She’s lived all over the world and dresses in weird clothes that only she could ever pull off. The amazing Camilla transcends social group, immediately accepted by the popular kids, but able to choose to spend time with the nerds without facing any repercussions. Girl is magical, basically.Thankfully, there’s more to Camilla than that. Sam really gets to know Camilla, and the two have oodles in common, and, perhaps more importantly, they’re open to learning about the interests they don’t share. He educates her on horror films and she teaches him a bit about music. They’re supportive of one another and admittedly adorable. She doesn’t exist just to make him better; they help each other improve. Other than a point I’ll note later, I definitely shipped this so much.I adored the nerdy bits about cinema, from the horror movie marathons to Sam’s absurdly terrible sounding attempted screenplays. Throughout the novel, various jokes about horror movie cliches are woven. For example, at a party Sam thinks a particular girl would be the first to die, which is admittedly kind of terrible but also hilarious. Though I don’t know much about horror movies, since I can’t watch them, I know I missed out on some awesome stuff there, but it was still great. There are also numerous science fiction and 80s movie references, which are more my speed.The characters are pretty fantastic. Sam’s group of friends, Mike, Adrian and Allison, banded together because none of them fit in and formed this awesomely nerdy haven. They eat lunch in a teacher’s office because they feel unsafe in the cafeteria due to bullying, but they get to watch movies while they eat, which is win. I’m an especially large fan of Mike and the LGBT subplot, and the fact that, unlike so many gay best friends in YA, he actually gets a resolution to his plot line.My only reservation about Life in Outer Space is Sam. He freaking rivals Hamlet for his inability to make the decision on whether to act on something. Basically, you will spend the whole book trying to make him help his friend Mike or tell Camilla how he feels. Of course, to tell Camilla how he feels, he’d have to know how he felt and he’s one of the least self-aware people that ever existed. I get that people are like that sometimes, but Sam still felt absurdly hesitant to me. Given how close that group of friends is, SOMEONE should have said something without it taking so freaking long. Plus, if things happened quicker, the ending wouldn’t be quite so incredibly sappy. Oh, and also the fact that all of the nerds clean up and are rather attractive at the end felt a bit too She’s All That: Mike has the abs, though that makes sense, but then Sam looks like Luke Skywalker in A New Hope, Allison’s apparently a pretty close ringer for Audrey Hepburn, and even Adrian is less ridiculous looking. No. Too much.Life in Outer Space is a nerd’s dream of a book. Though it got a bit too idealistically fluffy for me at times, it was still a delight to read and gave me many happy feels and made me laugh, so it’s one I’ll definitely be recommending.
    • 5/5
      **To Dianne of Oops! I Read A Book Again!: Thanks for this ARC copy. Sorry it took so long before I got to read and review LiOS!**

      This. Book. Is. Amazing. It's fun and light and quirky. I like the dialogue, the story itself, the use of geeky references. I like the humor and wit of the characters. I like Sam's geekiness. It's believable and not at all exaggerated. And he's not ashamed of being a geek. Sure, he and his friends try to fly under the A-group radar, but he wears his geekiness proudly. Speaking of his friends, I think Mike, Adrian and Allison are also awesome. They're different kinds of geeks but they all get along well and Sam couldn't have wished for better friends than these three.

      And then there's Camilla. Pretty and friendly and kind Camilla. The new girl with the British accent. And who lived in New York. And bumped elbows with famous musicians. She's way out of Sam's league and seems to exist in a different plane altogether but surprises of surprises, she becomes his friend! And that's the end of it.

      Or not.

      Of course it isn't.

      I love Sam's and Camilla's friendship. Camilla shares Sam's love for movies (although they have different tastes in film genres) and World of Warcraft (He's an elf; she's a dwarf). And although Sam was a bit hesitant at first, they were really great together when they finally hit it. It's not awkward even though you can already tell they like each other. They learned a lot from each other. Camilla opened a lot of doors for Sam, and Sam was there for Camilla when she needed someone. I'd say they're perfect for each other in a totally non-cheesy way.

      And that's what I love about this book. The romance angle is sweet and cute but it is not the focus of the story. I liked that the author explored the beautiful friendship between the main characters. It established the connection between Sam and Camilla and provided a strong foundation for them.

      Life in Outer Space made me wish I was in love for the first time again. I enjoyed reading Sam's internal debacle whether or not he likes Camilla in a more-than-friends way. (Ah, young love. *sigh*) I love his innocence, which is not surprising since his love life pretty much consists of Princess Leia and horror movies. It took him a while (and a couple of mistakes) to get his guts together but it was worth it. Camilla is worth it. :) Though Camilla had me worried for a while because she wasn't giving off the vibes that she also liked Sam. Or maybe Sam was just too dense to notice. Haha. Good thing it all worked out in the end.

      I abso-freaking-lutely love this book. Definitely recommended! One of the best YA contemporaries I've read so far. ^__^