IT CAME FROM THE SKY by Chelsea Sedoti

I’ve had the fortune of featuring Chelsea Sedoti’s previous novels, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and As You Wish. Her latest novel, IT CAME FROM THE SKY, debuted on August 4, 2020:

This is the absolutely true account of how Lansburg, Pennsylvania was invaded by aliens and the weeks of chaos that followed. There were sightings of UFOs, close encounters, and even abductions. There were believers, Truth Seekers, and, above all, people who looked to the sky and hoped for more.

Only…there were no aliens.

Gideon Hofstadt knows what really happened. When one of his science experiments went wrong, he and his older brother blamed the resulting explosion on extraterrestrial activity. And their lie was not only believed by their town―it was embraced. As the brothers go to increasingly greater lengths to keep up the ruse and avoid getting caught, the hoax flourishes. But Gideon’s obsession with their tale threatened his whole world. Can he find a way to banish the aliens before Lansburg, and his life, are changed forever?

Told in a report format and comprised of interviews, blog posts, text conversations, found documents, and so much more, It Came from the Sky is a hysterical and resonant novel about what it means to be human in the face of the unknown. (From Goodreads)

In our last interview, you recommended some books you’d fallen in love with. What has been your favorite book to read during quarantine/lockdown and why?

Apparently, lockdown has me feeling morbid. I only want to read horror novels. The scarier the better. A few friends have mentioned they’re only interested in light, happy reading during these dark times and I guess I’m doing the reverse? The world is scary right now, and my response is “Okay, then just throw all of the horror at me.”

I just finished reading The Exorcist (I’d seen the movie, but this was my first read of the book) and while I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, it was a fun reading experience. I sort of simultaneously hated and loved it and enjoyed sorting out those competing feelings.

Before that, I read The Followers by Megan Angelo, which isn’t horror exactly. But it reads like an episode of Black Mirror and as someone who already fears social media, it really creeped me out.

Now I’m in the middle of White is for Witching my Helen Oyeyemi and I’m loving the unconventional format.

Maybe all the horror at once is good! I love how IT CAME FROM THE SKY is told in a report format with interviews. How did you know the story needed to unfold with this kind of narrative?

I love books with mixed formats and knew I wanted to write one eventually—I just wasn’t sure what or when.

Then I sat down to start It Came from the Sky. Even though I hadn’t planned it beforehand, as I wrote the first line, I realized it was going to be told as a scientific report. Then I got a little farther and found myself, of all things, adding footnotes. That’s when I realized, “Oh! This is it. This is the mixed format book I’ve always wanted to try!”

Writing it was such an interesting experience. I really needed to consider each segment of the story. Does this need to be told in traditional narrative? Should it be a blog post? Should I deliver this information in a graph? It was like trying to fit together pieces of a puzzle.

The format also let me get to know minor characters more than I normally would have. Because most characters also have interview segments, I got to discover their individual voices and—if only briefly—see the world through their eyes.

What a wonderful way to explore the different elements of a story to see how they all fit together. What kinds of stories do you wish you could see more of?

Well, since we’re on the topic, I’d be very happy to see more mixed format books. I love when authors experiment with storytelling.

A few of my favorites are All of This is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, and Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

If anyone out there has recommendations like these, please share!

I think the only one I can think of is Sadie by Courtney Summers, but yes, if anyone reading this knows of other titles, please share in the comments section! In IT CAME FROM THE SKY, the events of Lansburg, Pennsylvania are based on a scientific mistake. Can you think of a mistake/setback that you’ve encountered that ended up turning out better than you expected?

Okay, so, a while back I worked this bizarre job. Actually, that’s not right. The job wasn’t bizarre, the owners of the company were. And they got weirder with each passing day. They’d started out as merely eccentric, but over the years progressed to being doomsday preppers who built a bunker in the office which they filled with guns and… well, it was causing me increasing concern.

Eventually, I had enough and quit the job—without another job lined up, or even a plan. That’s incredibly unlike me, because being unprepared triggers my anxiety. But the work environment had become far too toxic.

While I was jobless and trying to figure out what came next, I decided I should finally edit the mess of a novel that was on my computer. That book was The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and within the year I’d found an agent and publisher.

If my work situation hadn’t been a nightmare, who knows what might have happened with the book. I’m not encouraging anyone to quit a job without a plan, because it was not smart of me, but in the end, it turned into something positive.

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