Bent Heavens

By: Daniel Kraus

Narrated by: Amara Jasper

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

"Kraus gets under your skin with brutal, elegant efficiency. Necessarily horrifying, devastatingly timely." (Kiersten White, New York Times best-selling author of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein and Slayer)

From New York Times best-selling author Daniel Kraus comes a breakneck, genre-defying YA thriller perfect for fans of Kiersten White, Neal Shusterman, and M. T. Anderson.

Liv Fleming's father went missing more than two years ago, not long after he claimed to have been abducted by aliens. Liv has long accepted that he's dead, though that doesn't mean she has given up their traditions. Every Sunday, she and her lifelong friend Doug Monk trudge through the woods to check the traps Lee left behind, traps he set to catch the aliens he so desperately believed were after him.

But Liv is done with childhood fantasies. Done pretending she believes her father's absurd theories. Done going through the motions for Doug's sake. However, on the very day she chooses to destroy the traps, she discovers in one of them a creature so inhuman it can only be one thing. In that moment, she's faced with a painful realization: Her dad was telling the truth. And no one believed him.

Now, she and Doug have a choice to make. They can turn the alien over to the authorities...or they can take matters into their own hands.

On the heels of the worldwide success of The Shape of Water, Daniel Kraus returns with a horrifying and heartbreaking thriller about the lengths people go to find justice and the painful reality of grief.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

"Bent Heavens is the darkest, angriest alien horror story that I've ever encountered. Hell. Yes." (Stephanie Perkins, New York Times best-selling author of There's Someone Inside Your House)

©2020 Daniel Kraus (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

ok ish

Narration is great, however, a bit too predictable...has tons of potential but somehow falls short

A different kind of read.

This took awhile to get through because of the whole pandemic issue, so I had other things competing for my time. This turned out to be a completely different book than the one I thought it would be, but in a good way. A few key plot twists and you end up somewhere you simply weren't expecting. I can't say too much about it or I feel I risk giving away these plot points. But this was a solid read, and one I'd recommend for any reader who likes government conspiracy theories and the UFO abduction phenomena. A 4.5 out of 5 star read!

Less torture, more conspiracy

Overall. not a bad story but I felt like the explicit printing out of the Geneva convention guidelines and using them as a checklist was a bit much while the conspiracy theory angle was too largely glossed over.

Great Story

I thought the book was excellent. Definitely had some twists and turns I didn’t fully expect. Love that the narrator isn’t fully reliable and definitely fits the age of the character. Great performance as well! Highly recommend.

Twisted

I predicted the punchline quickly. This is still a disturbing twist of human emotion and motivation. Mostly it's disturbing.

Good story, excellent reader.

This was a good story, but the star of the title is the narrator, Amara Jasper. I've listened to several audiobooks, but Jasper's reading and voice really stands out. I searched for other books with her, but unfortunately there is just one other. I'm planning on getting it on the strength of her performance here but regret she's only.done two. I hope there are more in the future.

A flawed protagonist on a journey...

that actually goes somewhere. Some plot twists will be evident early but they are beside the point. Keep going when you think the protagonist is the most annoying. She's a kid so give her a chance. Give everyone a chance. - - I heard about this book via an author interview on the Belief Hole podcast.