Reviews

Interstellar Pig by William Sleator

khadijah3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

doritobabe's review against another edition

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4.0

I think this was a super-fun, great YA read and I am happy to have read it as an adult. I am also very disappointed I didn't stumble across this book when I was younger during the times when I would be dragged out to lake-side cabins for family vacation.

Interstellar Pig tells the story of a not-so-boring summer vacation with one's parents.... this one includes
Spoiler (you guessed it) ALIENS
.

Barney is vacationing in an old sea Captain's cabin. The cabin is steeped in gothic lore featuring the captain's brother and a long lost treasure. (I am trying to summarize the book without giving too much away, but it's quite difficult to do without making this whole review a spoiler.) Ultimately, Barney must learn to navigate a relationship with some very strange, fellow vacationers and a mysterious, intriguing board game that they have.

All I have to say is this is a super fun, very enjoyable read. It was interesting and a bit of a puzzle; perfect for those who love sci-fi and board games. Really, this could maybe have been a series arc of something like Dr. Who or Star Trek.

kbhenrickson's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was a read-aloud with my son that was also one of the first sci-fi books I remember from my own childhood (along with the White Mountains series). My son found the story creepy (in a way that he enjoyed), but he was mystified by some of the things that were common in the 80s but not really anymore - peoples' obsessions with being tan, the parents' disinterest in / irritation with their child (and letting him spend so much time alone or with the complete strangers renting the place next door). I think the story itself held up pretty well, though.

implantastic's review against another edition

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4.0

I liked this book because it reminded me a lot of Zathura and Jumanji. This read was from my library as a "Blind Date with a Book"

zu_reviews's review against another edition

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5.0

This was hailed as one of William Sleator's best, and though it wasn't my favourite of his at the time that I read it, I still loved it and it has stuck longer with me than five star reads back in the day.

It's "Jumanji" meets Ready Player One if they had a baby in the nineties.

caseykd's review against another edition

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5.0

I remember reading this book in Elementary school and I Absolutely LOVED it!! It was a fun book to read and kept my attention!

asimilarkite's review against another edition

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4.0

Hot damn I need to read this book again. I remember it being totally badass, weird, and awesome.

grid's review against another edition

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4.0

I picked this up from the library because there is a board game based on the game in the book and I felt like I needed to read it as a result.

The book is light YA, with a kind of fun premise about aliens playing a very deadly game (that doesn’t ever really get deadly because... YA). It’s implausible on many levels, and lacks a lot of big picture details, but still an enjoyable read.

The game that purports to be based on it just had a Kickstarter.

emperorcupcake's review against another edition

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adventurous tense

4.0

Such a delightfully weird book. I never read this one as a kid, but I feel like my exposure to William Sleator (with Into the Dream at an early age helped make me the weird reader I am today! Excited to keep reading more from him. What an awesome treasure trove of weird old books.

I didn't even know this was summery when I picked it out, but this is a perfect beachy, tentacle-y read!