Mothership by Martin Leicht & Isla Neal

Mothership by Martin Leicht & Isla Neal.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.
Pages: 320.
Release Date: July 10, 2012.
Source: Publisher.

Teen pregnancy is never easy—especially not when extraterrestrials are involved. The first in a new trilogy.

Elvie Nara was doing just fine in the year 2074. She had a great best friend, a dad she adored, and bright future working on the Ares Project on Mars. But then she had to get involved with sweet, gorgeous, dumb-as-a-brick Cole—and now she’s pregnant.

Getting shipped off to the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers was not how Elvie imagined spending her junior year, but she can go with the flow. That is, until a team of hot commandos hijacks the ship—and one of them turns out to be Cole. She hasn’t seen him since she told him she’s pregnant, and now he’s bursting into her new home to tell her that her teachers are aliens and want to use her unborn baby to repopulate their species? Nice try, buddy. You could have just called.

So fine, finding a way off this ship is priority number one, but first Elvie has to figure out how Cole ended up as a commando, work together with her arch-nemesis, and figure out if she even wants to be a mother—assuming they get back to Earth in one piece.

I'm not a huge fan of comedy when it comes to books. I can't really say why, considering I'm so easily amused in real life, but I like to get wrapped up in a serious story when I'm reading. However, Mothership was definitely an exception.

It's hilarious. Ridiculous at times but so very hilarious that I loved the ridiculousness. But it also had an underlying depth to it. It's a lot more heartfelt and emotional than the cover and synopsis makes it out to be and I really enjoyed that balance of comedy and story. Elvie was adorable and admirable with her sassy teenage snark and Cole - who I first pictured to be the typical cocky YA heartthrob - was clumsy and clueless and just as adorable as Elvie.

I was a little depressed at the amount of death in the book, considering 95% of the characters were pregnant teenagers. Maybe it's just me, but if a pet or a pregnant woman is killed when I'm watching something on television, it's an instant channel changer. So it kind of pulled me away from the story when these girls all started falling to their demise. However, the way the book is written, it's easy to forget the happenings of the previous chapter and go right back to laughing along, so I didn't stay depressed for very long.

Overall, I absolutely loved Mothership. It had some dark moments, but it was mostly emotional and hilarious and like nothing I've read in YA before. Ever. The characters were diverse and Elvie's character made this put very difficult to put down, the adventure/action was so kick-ass and - thankfully - the sci-fi aspect didn't get lost among the throng of pregnant teenagers. I definitely cannot wait for the next book! If you're in the mood for an epic, funny adventure, I recommend Mothership!

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