“Beings” is the second book I’ve read by Ilana Masad. I enjoyed it very much …..as I did her previous novel called “All My Mother’s Lovers”.

Ilana Masad is a queer Israeli-American writer. I admire her writing….it’s emotional-intelligent-mysterious-thought-provoking ….and down right interesting. I’ll read anything she writes.

“Beings” grabs a reader’s attention immediately….with the intimate storytelling….beginning in the year of 1961.
An interracial couple (a second marriage for both was taking a delayed honeymoon). They were driving at night in their Sky-Blue-Chevy-Bel Air. Through the dark mountains of New Hampshire, they see a mysterious light in the sky following them.

PART of story is based on true events.
I was FASCINATED.
I looked up the names of FACT-BASED-COUPLE that we meet at the start of this fact/fiction blending novel.
Barney and Betty Hill. (an American couple who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of New Hampshire in 1961). Their story was the first truly credible story of alien encounter.

I don’t usually read much science fiction which only ‘part’ of this novel is ….(not even as a kid)….so other than the Steven King movie classic “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial film …. I just can’t remember reading other books exploring extraterrestrial life.

A running theme throughout of ‘doubting oneself’ was remarkably human ….. leaving me thinking deeper about the phenomena speculation of extraterrestrial origin — the many reported unexplained lights and objects seen.

The couple we first meet “serves as one part of a trio of ‘intertwined’ threads: Known only by their roles as husband and wife”. Years later the couple goes through hypnosis….to deal with what they experienced as UFO aliens.
In the second thread we meet Phyllis Egerton, a queer budding science-fiction writer. The 60’s was a repressive time for lesbians…and we experience the loneliness Phyllis felt through letters she wrote to Rosa.
In the third part (present day), we meet The Archivist… a reclusive chronically ill archivist. She was trying to understand a strange forgotten childhood encounter while dismantling fact from fiction of stories she gathered from the abductees.

The stories we read are intricately and gracefully constructed together…..artistically fulfilling:
[intimacy, mystery, grappling, faith, longing, loneliness, love, ….. and an experience of the mysterious beauty in our universe….even a little dog named Dee].

BEINGS is an absolutely gorgeous novel by Ilana Masad that I feel so lucky to be an early reader for. I loved Masad's debut novel, and knowing this one was about alien abductions? I was so ready to dive in. But the book, of course, is about so much more than UFOs. Told in 3 distinct parts, we follow a couple in the 1960s who are believed to be the first people to experience an alien abduction (I didn't realize they were real people until I did some research after I put the book down!), an archivist who is learning about them and a science fiction writer from the 60s as well, and the writer herself, in letters to an old lover about her coming out as queer in a hostile city.

The interconnected stories are beautifully woven together, and I kept changing my mind about who I was most interested in. It is clear that the theme of aliens, and feeling like an other, is a heavy but apt metaphor for what all of the characters in all different timelines are experiencing. Phyllis, the lesbian sci fi writer, was a fascinating character and I began to wish that she was real as well! I would love to read her stories. All in all, this book lived up to the excitement I had going into it and I think it will be a hit title this fall. Can't wait for what else Masad has for us in the future.