John Calhoun, a bookstore owner and high school biology teacher, lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. At the moment, John's wife Iris has moved out....
.....which is hard on their children, Sam (15) and Emma (13), who have to go back and forth between homes.
To add to the unsettled atmosphere, three residents of West Lafayette have disappeared, and John won't allow Sam to meet his friends at The Hollow after dark.
John and Sam are arguing about this as they walk to 'Insomnia Cookies' one evening.....
.....and Sam angrily stalks around a corner, and vanishes.
John looks for Sam everywhere, and when he can't find him, John reports Sam's disappearance to the police.
The police, though, are inundated with reports of people vanishing, and the station is crowded with worried citizens.
John, his wife Iris, and their daughter Emma stay together, frantic about Sam and worried about the bizarre occurrences, which are spreading across the country.
Television commentators and Internet conspiracists offer numerous theories, and soon enough videos are uploaded of people vanishing in every possible circumstance, outdoors and indoors.
In fact, when John and Emma make a supermarket run, they see a shopper pulled across their windshield, yanked into the air, and disappear into the sky. And on television, a video shows a man slammed to the deck of a pontoon, jerked off the side, and swallowed up by the water.
Whatever is doing this, they can ambulate on land; fly; and swim under water. It's widely believed that 'invisible' aliens are taking the people.
As often happens in desperate situations, someone thinks they should take charge. In John's neighborhood this is a pushy lawyer named Dean Dawson, who insists everyone in the area bring their food, medicine, and other necessities to an outbuilding on his property, which he calls 'The Boiler Barn.' John refuses, and all kinds of trouble ensues.
After a while, John loses his entire family and finds himself in the local university's Physics Building with a group of survivors: Tracey, Beatrice, Jae, Melinda, Richard, Tommy, and Eric.
Tracey is an astrophysicist, and she and her assistant Beatrice realize a particular brain injury allows people to see the aliens. Since Richard is a surgeon, the survivors allow him to diddle with their heads so they can observe the aliens, who are VERY SCARY and shimmer with phosphorescence.
The survivors figure out a way to enter the aliens' dimension, where the abductees are being taken. John, who teaches biology, thinks he knows why humans are being kidnapped, and it's very frightening. So a group of survivors risk everything to try to rescue their loved ones.
The story is action packed as the humans battle aliens in West Lafayette AND in the aliens' own world. There are guns, machetes, vicious enemies, wheeled drones, winged drones, exotic plants, weird animals, and an ending that leaves room for sequels, if the author is so inclined.
In an interview, author Jonathan Janz notes the character John is based partly on himself. The protagonist John has a fierce love for his family and will go to any lengths to try and save them. John refuses to quit, blames himself for the trouble within his household, and is determined to make amends.
Author Jonathan Janz
I think the writing in this book leans toward a YA audience, though any sci-fi fan can appreciate and enjoy the novel.
Thanks to Netgalley, Jonathan Janz, and Blackstone Publishing for a copy of the book.
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