Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for this ARC.

In 1977, just as Voyager 1 launches, Adina is born to a single mother. She believes she is an alien and sent to Earth to report on human behaviour via a fax machine. Whether this is true or she is simply on the spectrum, who can say. In any case, this is the story of a person not fitting in and making observations about everything while they live their life - puberty, friends, first boyfriend, moving to New York, adopting a dog, writing a bestseller and experiencing grief.

I'm really struggling to review this book, as it is incredibly weird. It was suggested to me I would like it because I liked The Husbands by Holly Gramazio but the two books have absolutely nothing in common.

The writing style is erratic, there are no chapters, just vignettes, and many sentences make no sense whatsoever. I mean what does "Red wine tastes like a dark-walled library and white wine smells like a woman looking away" even mean? Or in the author's own words about Adina: "Her transmissions are episodic, matter-of-fact, and don’t have an overarching story like a novel or miniseries.”

And still, something compelled me to read on as I found the character and her opinions fascinating. One moment she talks about wine, the next she muses at length about Yoko Ono.  Some things feel very well observed, others are just trite. There is a lot about friendship, parenthood and not belonging in here, and generally I found how she navigates life interesting. However, the way it is written is too literary for me and I had difficulties with figuring out how old she might be at any time, as there is no real structure to the book, except for a few headings that don't help. 

This is the type of book I wouldn't normally read and while I'm not unhappy about having read it as it gives you a lot to think about, I can only give it a middle of the road rating, while acknowledging that some will love it and some will be confused by it.