Review: Mothership by Martin Leicht & Isla Neal

Mothership by Martin Leight and Isla Neal

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published: July 10th, 2012 by Simon & Schuster

Source: Amazon Vine

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.

This is one weird book dude.  But a totally awesome weird book!  Did you read that description?  Pretty crazy, right?  I kept seeing reviews for this book talking about how hilarious it was and I knew I had to read it.  So when I had the chance to review it, I was all over it!  

This is a hilarious book with a bit serious of a plot.  As there's lots of death going on and some scary situations.  But the way that Elvie narrates and the ridiculous things that are happening just makes it more comedy than anything.  Dark comedy, is that what it's called?  I don't know- but it wasn't a very 'dark' book other than people died and stuff.  And it's not like they didn't take it serious, but things were just SO ridiculous and the thoughts going on (and the ridiculousness of teenage pregnant girls) was just too hilarious.

Elvie was a great character because she was so balanced.  She had a fantastic inner voice but often she held back on saying things that she thought just because it was rude or something.  So she was a nice girl.  But not so nice in her head... she's also smart.  MUCH smarter than most of the other girls.  And because of her dads teaching her to always be prepared for anything, she's pretty much prepared for anything.  Even escaping from aliens on a spaceship that's about to rip apart.  She's also very loyal and a fantastic friend.

Now I really loved this book, and I got lots of giggles from it.  But I think I expected to laugh even more, so I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't even funnier.  Don't get me wrong, it was funny.  But I wanted it funnier.
I also felt like the end dragged on a bit.  Like it should have maybe cut out a bit.  The ending was a good conclusion, but opening up a new story line for the next book.

A little warning that this has some bad language and sexual words. (You know, pregnant girls have lots of horrible words to fling about.)  There's also violence but it's not anything I would worry about too much.  I just feel I need to put a warning out there because this cover shouts middle grade to me, and it is not.  I would say mature YA readers.  BTW, I LOVE this cover!  It's eye catching and fits the story perfect.

4/5 stars

Disclosure:  I received this book for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.