The True Meaning of Smekday - Adam Rex

 Published by Hyperion Books, New York: 2009 (2007).

This is quite an odd but relatively humorous book, set in a not-too-distant future where an alien race named the Boov have taken over the planet. Humans are being rounded up and send to "reservations" (Florida in the USA, although this is later transferred to Arizona after the Boov decide they like Florida as well), and our protagonist - an 11 year old girl named Gratuity Tucci - sets out from home, driving, to travel to the reservation with her pet cat, Pig. On the way Gratuity (who goes by the nickname 'Tip') picks up a Boov calling himself "J.Lo", and the two begin to bond in true 'road trip movie' fashion: bickering but growing to value one another.

The first part of the book is presented as an essay Gratuity is writing for her school about the "true meaning of Smekday", which we gradually learn is the day the Boov arrived on earth, as well as the day that the Boov eventually leaver. Once her essay finishes, Gratuity continues to narrate the story to a private journal, stating that her brain is 'compelling' her to finish the narrative: "My brain won't let me stop playing the rest of the story in my head like a movie, and I'm hoping that by writing it all down I can be finished with it" (page 155). And so we get a second alien invasion, with the Boov attempting to convince the humans to fight on their side against the new invaders. We get a trip to Roswell. We get edible animals, double-crossing leaders, and way too many cats. And its all lightly humorous, and mildly entertaining.

This isn't an incredible book. For a book probably aimed at younger teenagers it has some interesting ideas - particularly in the parallel between how the Boov are treating humanity and how European invaders treated the Native Americans - and it can raise a chuckle in places with its silly humour (one of the reviews on the back compares it to Discworld novels and the Hitchhiker's Guide series, though its not as memorable as them). Don't expect much more than that.

Which is fine. 

I enjoyed reading it the once, and now I will probably not read it again.

It is also the basis for the Dreamworks movie Home, something that I suspected at times during reading, but have only just confirmed now.

Completed 13 September 2020.

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