Think it all went downhill when I saw the white girl on the cover of a book set in Zimbabwe written by an English author, interesting concept but just didn't match up to it.

A really interesting concept, but it didn’t give quite enough science fiction throughout the book for me. It focuses more on the impacts of the initial event on various characters. Overall though well written and interesting.

This book had a really interesting premise and it was easily readable. While I enjoyed reading it, I'm not sure it has wide teen appeal. The cover is not very attractive.

As soon as I read the words 'Inspired by true accounts' I knew I wanted to read this book. I expected a story in which everyone questioned the children and what they saw. I did not expect a novel that would have me gripped by much darker events. 

Told by multiple characters, the rapidly changing narrator means the story progresses quickly and I felt a greater insight and understanding of the characters.  In turn, I had a stronger connection with them, increasing my concern for all of them and Chloe in particular. 

An unexpected read that I'm glad I took the time to read.

Sadly i really strugglesd with this book.. very hard to get into and I found it quite confusing as to what the author was trying to achieve. Quite a bleak read, with some really dark issues, but the basically nothing really very much happens to keep the reader's interest. Is it a psychological study. , its certainly not a story about aliens, unless the author was trying to draw a comparison on being "alien" in your own homeland..

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

I was eager to get my hands on this novel. On reading about it, I thought it had great potential and was interested in the story. In 1994 in Zimbabwe, six children spot a U.F.O. over their school. The book details how each character is affected by the same event, providing us with insight into their individual lives as the story progresses.

If you are expecting this to be a strictly sci-fi story of an alien encounter, you are in for more. This story runs much deeper. Encounters examines the often complicated and often dark lives of these young kids. At times, it was quite unsettling to read. I found it a little challenging to get in to, which surprised me. Getting beyond the opening narrative of a boy who is portrayed as homophobic, sexist and racist took some effort, although I should point out that this isn't representative of this book as a whole. Although I was a little unnerved, I continued reading. It certainly isn't a fun read - there are themes of abuse and grief here - and there is a lot going on with the different narratives. It was a lot more emotional than I thought.

What I took from this book is that it is a story about discovery. We, as readers, learn more about the event in question as we move through the narratives by each character, and the characters learn more about themselves as the story progresses. It looks at reliable (or unreliable) narrators and, likewise, trustworthy (or untrustworthy) storytellers, which is usually the case with books about people assessing an event or incident from their own viewpoint.

I found Encounters to be thoughtful in how it examined how the lives of people are affected by a single incident. However, I just felt it was lacking in its overall delivery. This was a book I really should have loved but, for me, it was missing something.

An interesting and thought-provoking read, but one I won't be recommending.

Encounters by Jason Wallace (Andersen) is a story of layers and discovery. Each chapter covers the same time period told from the point of view of different characters. Their stories overlap and as a reader you learn more details as you see events from different perspectives. It raises the question of reliable witnesses and trustworthy storytellers and reminds you that each character is telling their story from their own ideological viewpoint. It's an interesting technique that I found challenging as a reader - the first character was particularly unlikeable and hard to read and there were other characters I didn't want to leave behind - but it was ultimately rewarding as all the viewpoints built and layered, drawing you further into the story.

'Zimbabwe, 1994. A group of children spot peculiar lights in the sky over the grounds of their school. From this moment on, six young people's lives are changed forever. Gary hides the anguish he feels now his mum's left, acting out in fury and hatred. Chloe has no words for the thing she fears most every day. Karl is the headmaster's son, now fallen from grace. Tendai knows he can never live up to his grieving father's ideals. And Sixpence watches all, knowing he'll never be like these other children. All of them have seen something they can't explain. In amongst these tangled, tortured lives, comes a group of psychologists to verify the spookily similar claims of every witness. Their daughter, Holly, can tell there's more to it than aliens or mass hysteria - can she reveal the dark truths that haunt them? Inspired by true accounts, this is the long-awaited new novel from Costa-award-winner Jason Wallace.'

Encounters is full of ideas of abuse and trauma and inequality. It doesn't provide answers, rather it shows how people's lives are affected. It lays the foundations and lets the reader find their own position.

This is by no means an easy book to read. At times it is almost Brechtian in it's difficulties. But it has a lot to say and it has left me thoughtful and wiser and glad that I gave it the time it deserved.


Source - review e-copy kindly sent by Penguin Random House.

Zimbabwe, 1994. A group of children spot peculiar lights in the sky over the grounds of their school.
From this moment on, six young people's lives are changed forever.
Gary hides the anguish he feels now his mum's left, acting out in fury and hatred. Chloe has no words for the thing she fears most every day. Karl is the headmaster's son, now fallen from grace. Tendai knows he can never live up to his grieving father's ideals. And Sixpence watches all, knowing he'll never be like these other children. All of them have seen something they can't explain.
In amongst these tangled, tortured lives, comes a group of psychologists to verify the spookily similar claims of every witness. Their daughter, Holly, can tell there's more to it than aliens or mass hysteria – can she reveal the dark truths that haunt them?
Inspired by true accounts, this is the long-awaited new novel from Costa-award-winner Jason Wallace.

When you read the synopsis above you really want to read this book, it seems to have everything a good book should have to engage a reader. I have to say however, that I found this a difficult read, it was well written, emotional and thought provoking, and covered some dark issues. but I could just not get into the book it just was not for me. That does not mean it is not a good read, but I could not relate to the characters enough to enjoy this read.

ENCOUNTERS by Jason Wallace tells the story of 6 young people who have all been affected by a UFO sighting near a school in Zimbabwe in the 1990s. I went in expecting this to be a kooky alien book, but it went much deeper than that, instead opening windows into the complicated, often dark, lives of these kids. It was unsettling, and a little hard to get into at first (it opens with a narrative of a boy who is very unlikeable in his sexist, racist, homophobic views -- although this isn't representative of the book as a whole) but it's definitely a novel that makes you consider the assumptions we make about shared experiences and trustworthy narratives. An interesting one, for sure.

Expertly crafted, with each character's story adding another layer of emotional depth & helping to unravel the dark secret of one of them. It's tough going at times but is nevertheless an exceptional, unforgettable book.