This tribute to The Thing and Aliens gives us the xenomorphic gore/loathing of tech billionaires mash-up we didn’t know we needed. When Riley accepts an opportunity to collect ice samples in Antarctica, she forces herself out of her comfort zone and joins several other teens who have also arrived at an isolated station. The teens quickly realize that they need to be careful whom they trust and that there may be a monster running around leaking contagious ichor while it attempts to assimilate their bodies. True to polar horror, the book is dark and claustrophobic, though there is a bright spot in an affectionate lab rat named Basil. True to The Thing, it has an ambiguous ending that easily lends itself to arguments and theories.
If lots of gore and an impending sense of ecological doom set in a bleak snowscape sounds like something you might enjoy, I can’t recommend It Looks Like Us enough.
-Sarah, Reference and Children
