I started this book as science fiction only to realize it was a novel.  It is set on a different planet populated primarily by two forms of the same alien and a few people trying to form a community, a town.

The basic premise is that a girl does not take anti-viral drugs and is consequently able to inhabit the squirrel-like household deer that are very prevalent and see through their eyes.  There she is able to spy on human events and conditions.  But she spies on them as a human as well.  She at first believes this is a secret ability, but rapidly finds that there are many others who share it.

What makes this a novel, not just science fiction?  It is not just story.  The characters are successfully three dimensional, rare in science fiction.  It has human, difficult themes.  The aliens are almost unimportant, hardly identified past “other”.  And yet it is the otherness that pushes impels the human themes; our fear of the other, our guilt over that fear.  It is about growing and changing as humans.  And it left me without a nice pat ending.

Do I recommend this book?  Is it worth the read?  As science fiction, I don’t recommend it.  As a novel, I do provided you are willing to think.  .  I didn’t fully understand everything in it, which is good.  I believe that I will continue to think and wonder about this book. And that is the reason I recommend it.