The Night the Heads Came

by William Sleator

When sixteen-year-old Leo Kasden and his best friend, Tim, an aspiring artist, are abducted and interrogated by aliens, the two teenagers find themselves caught in the middle of an intergalactic feud between the alien Heads and the Others, shape-changers masquerading as humans.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fiction, Aliens, Horror, Childrens

172 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1996

About the author

William Warner Sleator III was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland on February 13, 1945, and moved to St. Louis, MO when he was three. He graduated from University City High School in 1963, from Harvard in 1967 with BAs in music and English.

For more than thirty years, William Sleator thrilled readers with his inventive books. His House of Stairs was named one of the best novels of the twentieth century by the Young Adult Library Services Association.

William Sleator died in early August 2011 at his home in Thailand.

Reviews

[Taylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars~
This book was actually really good I’m surprised.
At first I was kinda skeptical about the book, but the more I read, the more I enjoyed it. The ending is such a good twist and I can’t stop thinking about it.

[Marissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since all of Sleator's narrators are the headspace of a 16 year old boy, I've decided that I like these novels a bit better if I just pretend that not only do they all happen in the same universe, but they're all happening to the exact same kid, living on horrific, traumatizing experience after another. Learning nothing, gaining no perspective, forced by some Grecian version of hell to experience terrifying, sobering life lessons about the nature of humanity via existential, extra/terrestrial horrors, over and over again.

That said, The Night the Heads came is pretty offensively dull, especially in the face of Sleator's earlier stuff. Teenage boy thinks he can outwit everyone - cops, parents, alien races! Turns out he can't. There are elements of Pod People, Body Snatchers, ecological alien opportunists, and even some Stepford Wives. Basically, don't bother, go read some Bruce Coville instead.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leo and Tim are best friends. Tim is an aspiring artist who needs to get to New York for a secret interview about his artwork. Leo offers to give him a ride, only they never make it. Along a dark, deserted road they are abducted. Only Leo is allowed to return. What follows for the rational minded 16 yr old is a nightmare. How do you explain the situation to your parents? What can he tell Tim's parent's and police? He has an experience with amnesia, but after a visit to the psychiatrist and induced hypnosis, he has memories that feel "funny" - almost as if they were planted. Could he really have been abducted by aliens? I don't usually like sci fi but this is a very funny book which I really enjoyed.

[Clarissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readable fun little science fiction story for teens and tweens.
Leo and his friend Tim are abducted by aliens, the aliens return Leo to Earth, but not his friend Tim who is an artist. Now Tim's father is acusing Leo of abducting Tim. Now there are two kinds of aliens, are they both evil, or is one set of aliens good, are they here to save the Earth or destroy it, or is the Earth irrelevant?

[Mandi Hidalgo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in high school and thoroughly enjoyed it. In the years since high school, I forgot most of the book. I remembered the cover art, one scene, and that the book was about aliens. In the last ten years, I've thought a lot about the book and asked every bookworm I could to help me figure out what the book was. Finally, after ten years of trying, a random do-gooder on the internet figured it out for me and we became friends. Anyway, I found a used copy with the same cover art that I remember from high school, and bought it. I must say, I enjoyed it thoroughly again. The memories came flooding back as I read it and yet there was a newness to the story for me. Very enjoyable and I'm happy to have it in my collection.

[Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very creative as it is with the Sleator books I have read.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 2.5, not my favorite of his books. But entertaining and creative. I would have likely given it a higher rating had I read this when I was younger.

[Frida]

This book gave me nightmares when I was 7.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This had a germ of a few good ideas, but the writing is purely expository, and any twists in the plot are foreshadowed to such a degree that they cease to become twists per se. Sleator displays an occasional wit that makes the tossed-off quality of the whole affair that much more a shame.

This book makes House of Stairs seem better in retrospect. And it suggests with a certain finality that I should give children's fiction a rest.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very good. It was about this guy tim and his friend. him and his friend were both abducted by aliens.No one believes them until the aliens go to tims ouse and kidnap his fried again. So Tim now has to save his friend.

[Ivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

''clearly,the heads are the ones in control.' page 11

I liked this book because this book is about a boy almost died.

Other books by this author:

Interstellar Pig
The Boxes

This book has not won any awards.

[Sharon Skinner · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an odd little story, but it had a fun ending. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the aliens.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its an interesting science-fiction novel. I think it wopuld be better as a movie but still its exciting and you don't want to put it down.

[tyra_ Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, don't let the cover or the title fool you.

[Soumya Kamatham · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually it was very nice at the end of the story i felt relieved until

"good morning leo mom says in a flat, expressionless voice."


it was really scary for she was