The Dark Side of Nowhere

A small town is super ordinary and boring. People tend to stick around. Nothing really exciting happens. The protagonist wishes his parents were not so calm and boring. If only there were some real "action" in the town. the only time he ever remembers his parents being mad was when he explored "old town" - the section of town that was abandoned after a big disaster took place. Like most citizens of the town, he and is family get their monthly shots. He is not sure exactly what the shots are for, but think it may be related to the disaster.

A kid dies of appendicitis. Something feels a little bit off about the death and the funeral. he protagonist becomes friends with a new girl in town and explore Old Town. They find a picture of someone that looks almost exactly like a kid they know - only the picture was a few decades old. Now things are looking really weird.

One day, they find out the truth. The town was the site of an alien invasion. The protagonist and many of his friends are actually an alien strike force. They accidentally destroyed a section of town, and then took over the bodies of the previous residents as their own. The shots help prevent them from rejecting the old bodies. Now it is time to prepare for the downfall of earth. (Through means of misinformation that would be common in today's social media culture.)  They will take new shots that help their real bodies come out - bodies that appear superior to human standards. The kids rebel and the invasion is stalled.

The book is short and feels like it jumps to an ending with many loose threads. There are few details about the purpose of their invasion. We know they are somewhat superhuman beings with powerful glove weapons that think they can do a better job of earth. Why earth? How did they manage to become attached to humans? Were they really able to shut it off so easily? There are so many questions. But, you could ignore them and just boil it down to "boy meets girl and saves the world."