Review: A Believable Storyline that Will Draw You Deeper and Deeper into the Story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 14, 2011
"Being"By T.R. MousnerKindle B004V9G7S0 $3.99I found "Being" by T.R. Mousner to be both an interesting and a thought-provoking book. What would happen if an `alien' able to breathe in the combination of gases that comprise the earth's atmosphere were to land here? What would all of the contaminants in the air do to him or her? What would he or she think of our poor environmental control?Mousner explores these topics as her `alien' EBN (pronounced ee-ben, like eden but with a `b' instead of a `d') is stranded on earth after her spaceship is hit by the space junk orbiting in the earth's stratosphere. EBN must live among those she considers to be primitive and slowly faces a certain death by contamination of the various elements present in the earth's atmosphere. During the course of her stay EBN discovers that while humans may be primitive many of them have redeeming qualities.Despite orders to stay away from the human population EBN interacts with a disabled person who has a very advanced soul while in a store buying supplies for a cat she has rescued. The girl who has been crippled since birth and unable to speak is miraculously healed within moments of being touched by EBN. EBN flees and tries to hide but is discovered the next day by a man who followed her as far as the mobile home part where she is staying but then lost sight of her. The man returns with his wife who is in the later stages of cancer. Swearing the couple to secrecy EBN then heals the wife.Of course, it was too much to expect that the couple, and the girl and her mother wouldn't speak about what happened to them. The next day EBN awakens to find the yard in front of the mobile home crowded with people in need of healing. Any hope EBN had of maintaining a low profile is gone as she discovers she simply can't turn away from these people in need, even when her own health begins to rapidly decline.Adding to the chaos in EBN's life is her attraction to the teenage boy living next door. His sister runs the mobile home park where EBN is staying and it turns out the cat EBN rescued on her first night on the planet belongs to the boy, Shale, and his sister Harmony. All the two of them have is each other and the cat, their mother is dead and their father recently went missing. Both Harmony and Shale are grateful to have their cat back, but as Shale's feelings begin to change from distrust to interest EBN finds herself having to fight against her stranger attraction to the human.In the meantime the story is set against the contamination of California wildfires and the spewing oil leak from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. The pollution from the wildfires helps speed up EBN's rapid decline in health and the oil disaster convinces EBN the humans are set on a path of self-destruction, but far from giving up on them she finds herself touched by the better qualities she sees reflected in them during times of crisis.EBN has learned so much about the earth and the people on it but will she ever be able to return to her people to share what she has learned and even if she is able to return will they listen to her or will they consider her interactions with the humans a betrayal of the worst sort.I highly recommend "Being". I felt it offered a view of humanity that while acknowledging our worst flaws held out hope for the future and I also felt it offered an `alien' who was enough like us to be someone I could relate too but at the same time was different enough, and who came from a different enough culture to make the story believable.