Absolutely loved it!!! ( )

Not bad, but tween me would’ve enjoyed it more. And I can’t believe there wasn’t a second one after that ending, like c’mon, my dude. ( )

Reviewed by Becca Boland for TeensReadToo.com

Okay, I'm going to tell you the secret. The mystery to be solved, the secret to be unlocked. Ready? Here it is -- they came from below.

Every summer, Emily Dalton leaves Indianapolis to spend the summer with her scientist father on Cape Cod. She spends most of her time in South Point going to the beach, eating pizza, and meeting boys with her best friend, Reese. A week into the summer, they meet Steve and Dave, two of the cutest boys they have ever seen. They feel drawn to them in a way they have never felt before, almost like they are not human.

Strange things seem to happen wherever the two of them go. A boy falls off of a roof at a local party and breaks his neck, but after a couple of minutes with Steve and Dave, he walks away unharmed. Emily and Reese realize that these guys are not just tourists. They came from below, and they need to find their way back to the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, they cannot return to their home until they rescue their friend from a top-secret government facility, and they need Reese, Professor Dalton, and Emily to help them do it.

This book is smart and funny. Emily and Reese are like any teens you might meet on your summer vacation. They are interesting and quirky and fun. It is so easy to get wrapped up in their story of crushes and friendship that you might not realize what the book is truly about until you have finished it. It is also about close encounters of the third kind, but it is so much more than your typical sci-fi alien encounter book. The aliens look and act like humans, but their emotional range is much deeper than anything we can feel. They experience the world in a way that we cannot imagine.

THEY CAME FROM BELOW also looks at the way that we treat the Earth. In my opinion, this is the best kind of book; one that keeps your interest, has a great story, and delivers a message with a strong impact that does not get in the way. It is science fiction, but reads like contemporary fiction. Definitely worth picking up! ( )

Emily can't wait to get to Cape Cod to hang out with her Dad and best friend Reese. But this summer isn't going to be like the others. A mysterious lump washed up on the beach, and days later two mysterious boys, Steve and Dan, appear in town. There's something strange about them. Something Emily and Reese will understand before the summer's over! ( )