DARK ENERGY, by Robison Wells

The story: The aliens have landed, and Alice ought to have a front-row seat: her dad works for NASA and they're on their way to the landing zone. Only problem is, he's sticking her in a preppy boarding school so she'll be safe while he investigates the unknown. Little do they know that the action is about to come to school: first the aliens known as Guides, who are surprisingly human, and then the alien second wave, reptilian monsters who are here to recapture their former slaves--and will stop at nothing to do it. Only Alice and her friends stand between the slaves and their Masters, and humans are so...breakable.

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG-13; Violence PG-13; Sexual content PG; Nudity G; Substance Abuse PG; Magic & the occult PG; GLBT content G; adult themes (murder, slavery) PG; overall rating PG-13.

Liz's comments: Here's a stand-alone novel (yay!) with interesting elements of both alien invasion and life on The Rez. It's not often an author includes the Anasazi as a plot point in a YA novel, especially to implicate aliens in the mystery of the Ancestral Pueboans' disappearance 800 years ago. I was expecting the story to be continued in a second volume, but was perfectly content to see it wrapped up as it was, although the ending did seem a bit rushed. Still, it's nice not to feel like you have to get married to a series just to find out what happens at the end.