IT LOOKS LIKE US is a superb YA Supernatural Horror/Thriller set in Glorious Antarctica, and I totally devoured it. If you've enjoyed John Carpenter's The Thing and/or read the original story, John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?", you'll readily identify the trope: shapeshifters on the Last Continent. Only instead of a team of dedicated, single-minded, scientists plus military and/or corporate security, this is a small experimental group of high-schoolers on Winter Break, performing (untrained) unscientific sampling of ice cores, at the behest of a Billionaire tech baron very closely resembling a certain real-life example. [Extremely closely resembling, which makes for frequent chuckles and head-shaking.] The author is really good at exemplifying the young folks' characters, especially protagonist Riley. You just know "it'll all go tremendously wrong!," but still you can't help cheering these youngsters on. Quite subtly terrifying, actually, rendered more so because Riley's diagnosed anxiety disorder panic attacks can create hallucinations: are these events real, or aggravating brain glitches?
I particularly enjoyed the author's in-depth understanding of Riley's psychological issues; I expect she is quite possibly neurodivergent, and she is so extensively delineated I felt for the duration like I lived inside her skin. Another exciting aspect is the unraveling of the reasons behind this make-work Antarctic expedition [all that expenditure! Where's the Science?] and the way the author utilizes it to draw out carefully the character (or lack of) of the funding Billionaire financing the expedition. So realistic, so despicable! The type of villain whose nefarious schemes always prevail.
I'm definitely adding IT LOOKS LIKE US to the Reread shelf and holding my breath in anticipation of more from author Alison Ames!
