NOMINATED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR WRITING 2026

'An intelligent young adult novel [...] with an extraterrestrial narrator who combines the passion of Jane Eyre with the pathos of E.T.' - Daily Telegraph 5*

'Tense, tender and tragic, this modern love story builds to an explosive climax.' - Daily Mail

A HEART-RENDING NOVEL ABOUT THE QUEST TO BELONG, THE POWER OF LOVE, AND WHAT IT IS TO BE HUMAN.

THEIR LOVE WILL SET THE STARS ALIGHT . . .

Silver has been trained since birth for her mission: collect data on the humans to test if Earth is viable for her home ship, Charybdis, to colonise. The only rules are that she must feed back the data she collects to the ship, and at all times follow the Mantra: To touch is agony. To feel is pain.

So when Silver inhabits the body of a young woman and infiltrates the house she is staying in, she must learn to pass as a human without revealing her true identity. But she isn't prepared for how the humans will get under her skin. And she definitely isn't prepared for Finch, the boy she starts to fall for. Especially when he touches her - and it doesn't hurt.

It is not how Charybdis said it would be.

Have they been lying all along?

Conflicted by the war between her growing feelings for Finch and her allegiance to her ship, Silver must decide who to stand by and who to betray.