Book Review: Life Hacks for a Little Alien

Life Hacks For a Little Alien
By Alice Franklin
Review by Kazia

Franklin delivers an endearing debut with this coming-of-age style story about a neurodivergent child referred to simply as ‘little alien’. The little alien’s frustration over the communication barrier between themself and their parents, teachers and other adults in their life was devastatingly relatable. Also relatable (but in a much nicer, less heartbreaking way) was the great pleasure of discovering libraries, learning and linguistics. This book contains joy and sadness and complex, indecipherable feelings. Reading it felt a lot like being seen. An empathetic story which I would encourage anyone with neurodivergent loved ones to read.

P.S. The second-person narration is so perfectly suited to this book, so don’t let it put you off!