Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Jack Finney deftly begins this 1950's science fiction thriller with an air of mystery ("I warn you that what you're starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions..."), and then slowly builds an atmosphere of enveloping doom and dread. This short novel, concerning the now familiar plot line of alien life-forms inhabiting minds and bodies and thereby subtly changing people in a peaceful California town, is a fast-paced and entertaining read. The references to Fortean phenomena and proposed psychological explanations for the perceived changes in people are clever touches that add to the feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty throughout.

I saw the 1978 version of this film when I was in my formative teen years. It scared the bejebus out of me. I have since seen both other versions of it (the original was too sedate and the remake had characters that were too bimbo-y).

This is the first time I've read the original story and I have to say that I think I like it better than even my favorite film version.

The only negative thing I have to say about it is that it was a little bit moralizing - i.e. the "moral" of the story, hidden in alien effigies, was the withering-away of small town U.S.A. complete with people losing their humanity in the face of progress, etc... and it was none too subtle. I loved it as an alien-invasion end of the world type book, I didn't like it as a show more commentary on modernization. show less

Don't expect anything more from this book than you would expect from a b-movie: it's kindof campy, but it's a suspenseful page-turner. The thought of the people around you suddenly being replaced by identical duplicates is scary, in an insidious nightmare way, and the main characters handle themselves very much like a lot of real people would.

There are some weaknesses. The main characters keep changing their minds about whether anything bad is happening or not, and while this is a realistic detail, Finney doesn't handle it very well. The middle of the book gets a little rambly while the characters are trying to decide what to do, and there are some scenes that just seem unnecessary. Becky, the main female character, is very poorly show more developed: she's just your typical pretty face, object of the narrator's desire, compliant and almost completely passive, except for one scene where she suddenly saves the day out of the blue. Entire scenes go by where she is in the room but doesn't say anything and lets the narrator make all her decisions for her.

But all in all, fun, suspenseful, and creepy. Classic b-movie material.

I listened to the audiobook, which was quite enjoyable (probably more enjoyable than reading the actual book would have been). It is read by the son of the movie director, which gives it a nice historical twist. show less

Good opening paragraph! And then, this sentence to start the second - “For me it all began around six o’clock, a Thursday evening, October 28, 1976, when I let my last patient-a sprained thumb-out the side door of my office, with the feeling the day wasn’t over for me.” Dun, dun, dun... And it takes place in Mill Valley, a town just a dozen or so miles from where I live! Dun, dun, dun...

Mill Valley, Strawberry, San Rafael, Corte Madera, Marin General Hospital, the Sequoia theater - all locations that are too close to where I live to make this a comfortable read for me! (I’m in Novato!) And when they do the roll call of Marin County towns in Chapter 15, well that just sealed the creepiness right up tight for me, even though show more Novato isn’t specifically mentioned.

The writing is a bit stiff, or formal feeling, for me, but the plot is good! I mean, this is a classic - the Pod People for Pete's sake! Miles is kind of an accidental heroic figure, and a pretty scattered one at that, but he does battle hard, both to stay awake and to get rid of the invaders!

Still, I’m gonna get me one of them blue-and-yellow Mill Valley Bargain Jubilee buttons... just in case... show less

I don't think it's necessary to really speak about the plot of this book. Surely everyone is familiar with it through reading the book itself or through its several movie versions. What I want to talk about is Jack Finney the writer. He has long been one of my favorites, simply because of how his stories engage the reader. Reading a Finney story is like having it told to you by a fascinating friend. He does a great job creating the world for each of his stories and pulling the reader into it. The world of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is not one I would want to live in, but it's definitely one that I would eagerly tour with Finney as my guide.

This book was made for a 1950's sci-fi movie - suburbian nostalgia, a handsome hero/heroine, a simple enemy, and a conclusion with just a touch more hope, optimism, and faith in the human spirit than we expect today. I really enjoyed this book, although I felt that the plot occasionally dragged under the weight of too much straight exposition, and the climax went a little too easy on our heroes.

However, this was a creepy story, one that examines one of our most primal and terrifying fears - what happens when our bodies and our identities are violated. What I liked the most was the story's simplicity - there isn't a showdown with a flying saucer and little green men, there isn't a staggering body count, and there wasn't any dramatic show more explanation of WHY these seed pods came to Earth. As Miles Bennell warns us at the beginning of the story, "What you're starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions." Normally, I like my stories to be wrapped up and satisfying, but in this case, the loose ends worked. show less

So I committed a bibliophile sin - I watched the movie before I read this book. By many years, actually (I believe that I was about thirteen when I first saw the movie). But it's fine, because I have righted this wrong! And besides, it's been so long since I've seen the movie that I couldn't remember what happened, so I was really reading this book with surprisingly fresh eyes.

I really didn't like the introduction from Dean Koontz, who spoke about the movie for nine-tenths of it. He finally did get around to mentioning the book towards the end, but why have someone write an introduction for a book when he so clearly just wants to talk about the movie? Meh.

But the book itself is pretty good. Yes, it's dated and stuffy at times. The main show more character can be a bit of a snob, to be honest. But the story is just so good that I was okay with overlooking the fact that it wasn't perfect.

I think this is one of these books that can fit in anywhere in time, no matter how long it's been since it was written. There's always a Menace for every generation. Reading the book now, I could see how it would still be relevant today when it comes to the re-rise of the neo-Nazi movement (I won't give any grace to those fuckers by calling them "alt-right"), the fear of immigration, and white fear in general. In twenty years, whatever Menace is around (provided we haven't nuked the human race into extinction) will probably fit the story just as well as current issues do.

Altogether, I'd definitely recommend this book. It's a good horror story, but there's more to it than that. show less