The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex

They made a movie about this book. Do I need to mention it wasn’t nearly as good as the book? No, I thought not. There’s also an audiobook of this book, and I DO need to mention that the narrator, Bahni Turpin, did such an amazing job reading that I—even I, who am addicted to print—will only consume this book by audio.

Gratuity “Tip” Tucci finds herself living in a world conquered by a race of aliens called the Boov. The aliens abducted Tip’s mom, conquered the world, and then decided that since the humans did not care to give up their property, it would be in everyone’s best interests if all the humans in the United States would live in Florida, leaving the rest of the states for the Boov. Tip packs up her cat, Pig, straps blocks to the car’s gas and brake pedals, and heads cross country to get to Florida. On the way she runs into one of the aliens. He calls himself J.Lo and he offers to fix her car in exchange for a ride. He does fix the car (except he made it fly instead of drives) and she does give him a ride—resentfully, since his people have just destroyed her world and stolen her mother.

But as they cross the United States, their uneasy partnership gives way to real friendship. And they have to rely on each other even more as the Boov’s mortal enemies, the Gorg show up in the sky, defeat the Boov and take over Earth instead. With J.Lo the only Boov left who understands how the Gorg operate, it’s up to him and Tip to rescue the world.

This book is funny and totally unique, and I love it. But if you read reviews of it, you’ll get acres of book bloggers salivating over its woke agenda talking points. Thankfully I don’t read random bloggers’ reviews before I read books, because if I had, I’d never have read it and I would have missed out. I am not a fan of stories whose main point is to push a social or political agenda more than to tell the story. I find it a struggle to appreciate even Christian fiction that sacrifices plot for the sake of theological messages.

This is not one of those stories. It is anti-colonial, it is diverse, and I suppose if you were really digging for woke-ness you could even say that the whole “spectrum of genders” idea gets a nod. Having read some of Rex's other work, I'm fairly certain those talking points are dear to the author’s heart. But because Rex never sets the story aside to preach, it achieves an effectiveness more blatantly “woke” books can’t achieve. He peoples his tale with well-rounded, fully-fleshed characters. Nobody is a strawman set up to demonize an entire gender or race. With wit and absurdity Rex peels back the human heart’s reaction to pain and loss and displacement. There is no sweet coating here (though it is incredibly funny) and there is no glossing over pain on either side. In short, he tells the truth, and that’s what makes this book worth reading.