A unique treasure, poetically written, “Human Alien” takes you into the soulful and creative depths of the narrator. This quaint tale of recovering from a break up, written by author, Vika L. Coppens, was visually captivating and woefully crafted to truly blend the feelings of isolation and humanity that we all feel at one point or another in our lives.

This book review of “Human Alien” scores this book a 5 out of 5 Coffees!

What I most enjoy about this work was how each chapter was able to capture a fleeting thought and/or emotion and how Vika is able to unpack such raw feelings and translate them into something relatable. “Without the reader, there wouldn’t be a reason for the author to continue a story. Every time your eyes touch my sentences or every time you blink while reading a chapter, my heart skips and my palms start to sweat. I feel connected with you, my dear reader. Do you feel the same? Can I take you on a trip with me, today?” – writes Vika, building on the thoughts of Samuel Johnson who wrote, “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”

This book really was a journey indeed. Because it reads poetic at times, there were periods where I found myself taking a break from the book so that I could absorb or better understand what I had just read. And there were times where I was in a different place personally, than where the character in the book was. I was able to continue reading when I felt I had a connection with the character, or when some insightful gems were being offered for me to grow and understand what I myself was feeling inside. I was connected.

To match her wonderful prose, the author, Vika, also shared with us her artwork. She illustrated the book cover as she designed visual glyphs corresponding with four major sections of this book. It turns out, Vika, is also a painter, illustrator, and more! I truly recommend this book as it really is one of the more unique books I have read in a while – and not just in story line, but in the way that it is structured and painted with a poetic paintbrush. Allow me to share my favorite quotes from the book below:

Favorite Quotes in Human Alien

“I mostly sit next to my window, watching the sunset and wondering what I did to deserve this pain, this never-ending shame for who I am, for my body, for what I did wrong. I blamed myself a lot, I still do. What did I do to provoke this, why was I there at he wrong time and place, why me? Why did it have to me be who carries the scars?” (pg. 87)

“The sun directly hid behind the clouds and a cold wind set. The trees started to shiver, the wolves howled in the distance. I dragged his heavy body to his bed and left some thorned roses on top of his chest. The dark, green ivy started to grow into every hole and through every window of the house. Fallen, brown leaves began to dance in every room as if autumn afternoon. Every color turned grey, mat and dark. I closed the wooden door as I left the house and brown thorns took over the whole house and garden like a living monster. They locked the door behind me, crawling over it like hissing snakes. I watched this magical moment while I put on my red hoody again.” (pg. 123)

“The lake chad been crying my name. For many nights in a row. I couldn’t resist the mermaid serenade anymore, so I walked hypnotized, without blinking, towards the lake. My wolf pack was walking in a long row behind me. A blue fog surrounded the whole forest and the moon lit our path. When we arrived at the lake, a huge ship was sailing towards us. I watched it break the phosphoresce in the water. Dragonflies were zooming around me, wolves were howling and mermaids were singing. The wind played with my hair while I waited for the ship to take me away.” (pg. 156)

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“When you can’t sleep at night, read poetry. When your heart is broken, read poetry. When you need support, read poetry, and when you need to relax, read poetry. Poetry is the rhythm of our heart. It is the beat of life transformed into words. Poetry is the cure for everything. It’s the glass of water you drink at 2 a.m. in the morning after a horrible nightmare. What if poetry was illegal, would you still use it?” (pg. 194)

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” – Edgar Allan Poe

“I put a blanket around myself and walked outside on my bare feet. The snow burned my skin and I closed my eyes. I wished for once that the empty house behind me would be filled with my family, just like it had been fifteen years ago. I hoped that the table would be set, the fireplace crackle and chicken baked. I threw the blanket away and let myself fall into the snow.” (pg. 214)

“In the end, I was sitting there, alone in the swamp, with the black pearl. The black coloured smoke that rose out of the pearl crawled upon my arms and turned my dress, my hair and my lips black. I cried black tears while I walked deeper and deeper into the swamp. Further away from humanity, looking for other pearls.

“I smiled back at her while she moved closer, to offer me a snake out of her hair. She crawled up unto my body and I felt the scales of her tail touching my legs. Carefully, she implanted a snake into my head and her eyes filled with tears. I slowly grabbed her hand and her whole body started to shake. she fell to her knees, she cried out. She crumbled to pieces in front of me and her desperation was shattered on the floor. I didn’t know what to do. I stumbled. I decided to sit down next to her, to hold her very close to me. I felt her tears in my lap, falling like little pebbles. While I tried to comfort her, I heard the ghosts of past warriors whispering my name and a shiver ran down my spine.” (pg. 147)

“A million stars twinkle in the sky every night. There are a million planets in this universe. A billion stars. A trillion of comets. It’s strange we don’t see them during the day. The world puts a blue blanket around its surface and we forget that we are only living on a grain of sand. At night, we hardly see a couple of the closest stars wink at us, but how often do we sit down to watch the night sky? When we look through the sieve of the Earth into the universe, we look into the future. We see everything that is still to come. We see stars that aren’t born yet. If an alien would look for us with their telescope, they would only be able to see the past.” (pg. 281)

If you want to read “Human Alien” by Vika L. Coppens, you can purchase it on Amazon, here.

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