The Dark Side of Nowhere

Rating:
Summary: This is a GREAT book!
Review: AMAZING! I really enjoyed this book! I couldn't put it down! It was the BEST book I have ever read! I can't wait to read another of Neal Shusterman's books!

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad read for sci-fi
Review: As a teacher of eighth grade English, I make it a point to keep up with young adult literature. I found this book by Shusterman to be very entertaining and compelling, until it got to the end. I felt that at the end it all kind of fell apart and became truly unrealistic. I am writing this review to show my sixth period class how to do an online review. I think it's an excellent way for students to do real-world publishing and share their opinions with others.

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Summary: Antony Dimov's Book Review
Review: As many people would assert, The Dark Side of Nowhere is a thrilling book for a very specific reason. This science-fiction novel is about a young adult named Jason Miller, whose life is very, very "nice." But in his opinion, "nice" would refer to neither good nor bad. His best friend, Ethan, has perished of a burst appendix. This occurrence leaves Jason terribly hurt and saddened, and then starts to call his life plain and simple. It is tedious and monotonous. The teenager lives in a small town called Billington, which is, according to him, the most boring place in the world. But as he learns from his father and the school janitor that he is one of the Warrior-Fools, alien group that has failed its invasion of planet Earth, his life becomes an awful perplexity and bewilderment. He is the most "normal" person on the face of the globe, and yet, he is forced to believe the unbelievable. He finally decides that he really is an alien after all. As the school janitor reveals this fact to him and gives him a special metal glove shooting BBs, Jason meets his friend Ethan, who hasn't genuinely died. He has just taken the appearance of an extraterrestrial. The Warrior-Fools had been treated with a special DNA injection that kept them in "human shape." They had taken the external looks of the people who were killed during their attack. But as the quantity of DNA injections lessen, Ethan, Jason and all of his friends commence to show symptoms of creatures from outer space. The Warrior-Fools were ready for another invasion, but Jason refuses...
This book is one that many reluctant readers will surely enjoy. I am very unwilling, but I liked it. It is a piece of literature which "hooks you up" and almost forbids you to leave it aside. Knowing that it is a novel of man vs. himself made me read it in three days, staying until five in the morning in order to finish it completely. At numerous intervals during the story, Jason always inquires himself whether or not he is right about his decision-making, and whether he is human. He almost asks the reader for his opinion on the dilemmas he encounters. In addition, I enjoyed the suspense that the author used. At every single point during the course of the tale, I was always "drooling" to learn what would transpire next. An example is when Jason is given the metal glove. Nevertheless, The Dark Side of Nowhere was a little bit confusing. I had to read the book four times to understand it accurately, which I personally consider as normal for me. It is a novel for ages 12 and up, but sometimes I seriously ask myself how kids younger than me could ever grasp the meaning of the story. Although The Dark Side of Nowhere is a puzzle to decipher for me, I think that it's a great interpretation of the average teenager's adolescence.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Side Of Nowhere; A Great Book
Review: Christina Kiely 12/1/03

The Dark Side of Nowhere By: Neal Shusterman ISBN:0-812-56878-8

" Because no matter what my reflection tells me-no matter what genes give rise to my form-I know exactly who and what I am.
I am Jason Jonathan Miller. And I am human." The Dark Side of Nowhere is about a boy named Jason who doesn't know what he is till his parents tell him some shocking news.Jason has to get shots every month, and he thinks its normal until he meets a girl named Paula who doesn't have to get shots. His friend Wesley and him think its weird that she doesn't get them. Paula doesn't understand why they get them until Jason and Paula go to Old Town, and find a picture of someone they both know. But these pictures are like 20 years old and they are only 14. This book is a PB fiction novel.
I found this book as a recomandation from one of my friends. She said it was a great book and that I would enjoy it and now I'm telling you. This book was definitly a page turner because the author always left you hanging.I did not connect to any characters because in the end they change a lot like from human to something else. I really enjoyed this genre because it was a very good book and even though it was very weird and could never happen the author makes it where it is interesting. I really liked the style of writing that Shusterman uses when he explains Old Town. He explains it like "It was dark and glomy the houses lookeed all recked up as we walked down the street." There are a lot of surprises in the book especillaly when Jason is holding the BB gun glove and he turns from human to there monster cretures. Mostly every chapter ended in a cliff hanger like chapter 10 because everyone thought Ethan died but he just turned into the monster creture and at the end of the chapter it ends like "Ethan?" because they just found out he was alive. This was not a boring book and it is an easy read and I would recomend it to everyone even girls because it is a really good book.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Side of Nowhere
Review: Christina Kiely 12/1/03

The Dark Side of Nowhere By: Neal Shusterman ISBN:0-812-56878-8

" Because no matter what my reflection tells me-no matter what genes give rise to my form-I know exactly who and what I am.
I am Jason Jonathan Miller. And I am human." The Dark Side of Nowhere is about a boy named Jason who doesn't know what he is till his parents tell him some shocking news.Jason has to get shots every month, and he thinks its normal until he meets a girl named Paula who doesn't have to get shots. His friend Wesley and him think its weird that she doesn't get them. Paula doesn't understand why they get them until Jason and Paula go to Old Town, and find a picture of someone they both know. But these pictures are like 20 years old and they are only 14. This book is a PB fiction novel.
I found this book as a recomandation from one of my friends. She said it was a great book and that I would enjoy it and now I'm telling you. This book was definitly a page turner because the author always left you hanging.I did not connect to any characters because in the end they change a lot like from human to something else. I really enjoyed this genre because it was a very good book and even though it was very weird and could never happen the author makes it where it is interesting. I really liked the style of writing that Shusterman uses when he explains Old Town. He explains it like "It was dark and glomy the houses lookeed all recked up as we walked down the street." There are a lot of surprises in the book especillaly when Jason is holding the BB gun glove and he turns from human to there monster cretures. Mostly every chapter ended in a cliff hanger like chapter 10 because everyone thought Ethan died but he just turned into the monster creture and at the end of the chapter it ends like "Ethan?" because they just found out he was alive. This was not a boring book and it is an easy read and I would recomend it to everyone even girls because it is a really good book.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Side Of Nowhere; A Great Book
Review: Imagine your school janitor mysteriously gives you a bag with a heavy steel glove in it, which goes clear up to your elbow. Jason, the main character, is a ninth grader who finds that this glove shoots BB's when he flexes any one of the fingers. When his best friend, Ethan, bursts his appendix, everyone is told that he died. But what Jason found out was far from the obvious. These two friends train to take over the world and to ultimately live on another planet. They are being forced to do it; sort of. The clumsy steel gloves that Grant, the janitor, is passing out are only the beginning of warrior training.
I loved this book -- out of ten stars, I would give it fifteen. I liked the fight between Billy, the bully, and Jason because I thought it was funny. They were slowly became warrior fools (the aliens who were taking over the world. Each chapter always ends with a cliffhanger, tempting you to want to read more. For example, chapter 2 ends with the explosion of a mirror, but you have to read the next chapter to find out what caused the explosion. The Dark Side of Nowhere is packed with action and it puts you right in every scene.
I recommend this book to almost everyone. Ages eight through fourteen will like this book. It is a science fiction story that has mystery, action, fantasy, and even a little romance. Again, I loved this book.

Rating:
Summary: What if you weren't who you thought you were?
Review: Jason is a young teen living in a small town. He describes his life, parents, friends, school, everything as "nice". And there lies the problem. It is terribly dull. Jason is somewhat of a troublemaker, but things remain dull. Then a close friend dies of appendicitis and the school janitor gives Jason a strange metal glove.

Now things are not dull anymore. Jason and all of the members of his church seem to have a shadowed background. A twenty-five year old photo looks just like one of his friends. Why is everyone tied to an unreported epidemic that hit the town years ago?

Soon Jason learns the truth of who he, and his friends, really are. He must deal with the knowledge and the changes it brings. Eventually he must decide where his true loyalties really lie.

A very unusual coming-of-age story with wonderful science fiction twists. The whole story does not end as Jason is still alive at the end, but the story of how Jason deals with his new life reaches a very satisfying conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: What if you weren't who you thought you were?
Review: Jason is a young teen living in a small town. He describes his life, parents, friends, school, everything as "nice". And there lies the problem. It is terribly dull. Jason is somewhat of a troublemaker, but things remain dull. Then a close friend dies of appendicitis and the school janitor gives Jason a strange metal glove.

Now things are not dull anymore. Jason and all of the members of his church seem to have a shadowed background. A twenty-five year old photo looks just like one of his friends. Why is everyone tied to an unreported epidemic that hit the town years ago?

Soon Jason learns the truth of who he, and his friends, really are. He must deal with the knowledge and the changes it brings. Eventually he must decide where his true loyalties really lie.

A very unusual coming-of-age story with wonderful science fiction twists. The whole story does not end as Jason is still alive at the end, but the story of how Jason deals with his new life reaches a very satisfying conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: THE DARK SIDE OF NOWHERE
Review: My favorite saying is 'It was simply
Wasn't possible to explain it was hideous yet it was beautiful. Its thick mane dazzled me with it's vibrate peach color'.

The theme of the book is. A boy who lives a lie his parents bestowed on him. He was an alien. His parent's ship crash landed on earth letting out harmful radiation killing people, but before they died his parents took the DNA from the people and put onto theirs they became them. When the truth was found out that he and his friends were aliens!

The book made me want to read it again. The book I would say is for kids 8 to adult. I want the book to win the award because it has qualities no book has.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting SF adventure
Review: Neal Shusterman is a skilled YA writer, with the ability to blend the surreal and the everyday. One of his better-known books, "Dark Side of Nowhere" is an unusually good kids' SF story, about a group of teenagers who begin to wonder what the strange secrets in their town mean.

Billington is incredibly dull in the opinion of young Jason Miller. The only lull in his Norman Rockwell lifestyle is the sudden, violent death of his friend Ethan by appendicitis. But after that, things began to seem strange. The new girl Paula points out that not everyone in the world receives special allergy shots. Jason finds a picture of a classmate -- from the 1970s. A sinister janitor gives Jason and the other kids "training gloves" that shoot BBs like bullets from the fingertips. And then Jason's parents reveal the stranger-than-fiction truth to him: They, and the families they are close to, are all alien beings stranded on Earth.

Now the janitor Grant says that alien ships are coming to conquer Earth, and strange changes are taking place in the bodies of the alien-human teens. Jason and his friends must learn more about the terrifying and beautiful alien beings that are their own species, and how to stop Earth from being threatened.

It's the dream of every small-town boy who felt that his life is too incredibly dull to be believed, and that "you'll live nice, die nice, and your life will have been a nice waste of time." It may not be every boy's dream to find out he and everyone he knows is an alien, but it's an unusual adventure. Shusterman's writing varies nicely between everyday (burgers, breakfast, baseball, and a father who always calls him "son") and absolutely surreal (such as the scene with a certain transfigured character, a scene where the kids discover their body hair falling off).

Jason is a likeable hero, very realistic. At first he mainly seems interested in breaking out of his dull life by being sarcastic and cocky, but when a real crisis arises he is an intelligent and resourceful person. Paula is pretty good as the human girl he has a sneaking liking for, and Grant is creepy and very believably alien. The kids around Jason are also realistic, although they seemed to be falling into line with him a little too unquestioningly.

Fans of fantasy and SF will undoubtedly enjoy the haunting SF story "Dark Side of Nowhere," with its intriguing plot and good characterizations. Great read.