Neon Green

by Margaret Wappler

It's the summer of 1994 in suburban Chicago: Forrest Gump is still in theaters, teens are reeling from the recent death of Kurt Cobain, and you can enter a sweepstakes for a spaceship from Jupiter to land in your backyard. Welcome to Margaret Wappler's slightly altered alternative '90s. Everything's pretty much as you remember it, except for the aliens.

When a flying saucer lands in the Allens' backyard, patriarch and environmental activist Ernest is up in arms. According to the company facilitating the visits, the spacecraft are 100 percent non-toxic, and the green sludge the spaceship occasionally dumps in their yard is harmless.

As Ernest's panic increases so do his questions. While his family accepts and even begins to enjoy the giant flashing ship, Ernest's fears of exposure grow into paranoia.

When Cynthia's cancer diagnosis sends the family into a tailspin, everyone must confront the elusive true causes for tragedy. And while Ernest's rage over the flying saucer continues to mount, the spacecraft itself starts exhibiting signs of distress.

Set before the arrival of the Internet, Neon Green is a book about a family's relationship to the world, and what it means to be a part of it.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels

246 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 2016

About the author

I’m a writer based in Los Angeles. I’ve written about the arts and pop culture for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Elle, Cosmo, the Believer, Village Voice and several other publications. My debut novel, Neon Green, came out July 2016 from Unnamed Press. I’m also a regular panelist on Pop Rocket, a weekly pop culture podcast from Maximum Fun.

I was on staff at the Los Angeles Times for seven years, covering music, books, film and TV. Before that I worked as the books and food editor at Newcity, a Chicago alt weekly. I also ran the books and fiction section of Venus, a magazine dedicated to covering women in music. My fiction and essays have appeared in Black Clock, Public Fiction, Joyland Retro, Yes Is the Answer: And Other Prog Rock Tales, and Here She Comes Now.

Goodreads folks might recognize me from several interviews I've conducted for Goodreads' newsletters with authors I admire, including Zadie Smith, Tom Wolfe, Mark Haddon, and Barbara Ehrenreich.

In addition to writing, I teach fiction and nonfiction at Writing Workshops Los Angeles. I also critique and edit manuscripts, and lead private writing workshops.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only reason I found this book is that the author is a co-host on the Pop Rocket podcast, which I listen to devotedly. And I am so glad this book made its way into my life.

What a beautiful, unexpectedly true book.

Based on the premise, I never thought it would be what it was. Not that I'm sure what that is, exactly: a book about the lies we tell ourselves to comfort ourselves and to feel we are in control? A parable about the beauty and difficulty of ambiguity? One man's redemption story? A family character story? A love story? A mystical experience? Just a damn well written novel? All of the above?

All I'll tell you so that I don't spoil the book is that a) in 1994, a flying saucer lands in the suburban backyard of the Allen family; and b) the aptly named Ernest receives a fortune cookie with the fortune, "If certainty were truth, we would never be wrong."

I'll also tell you that I highly recommend this book, which still is buzzing in my brain. I'll be thinking on this one for a while.

Thanks, Margaret!

[J. Stradal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was honored to have a chance to read this wonderful debut novel as a manuscript, and I was floored. Deeply moving, unsentimentally nostalgic, surreal, and hilarious, Wappler’s alternate 1990s unravels the curiosities and sufferings that reveal our character and transform our souls. Set in a fictionalized Oak Park, Illinois, NEON GREEN is part family drama, part sci-fi, and part bereavement tale -- and the strength of this book is that each major character is afforded a different perspective into each of these realms without being oversimplified. It's as kind, complex, and realistic a portrait of suburban Midwestern life in the 90s as I've ever read, and there just so happens to be a flying saucer in the middle of it all. Excellent for book clubs, there is much here to unpack, debate and discuss. A wonderful debut from a writer I hope has more in the works.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't what you're expecting it to be. It isn't a story about aliens; rather, it's a story about a family who suddenly have a foreign presence in their lives and watching as they find their own individual ways of coping with it.

You've got four family members, a typical upper middle-class white household. Ernest, the obsessed Earth-saving father, is ultimately the star of the novel. His wife and kids are in the forefront too, but truly it's his story arc and how he rises and plummets as a result of the spaceship landing in his backyard. His relationship with his kids suffers, his wife suffers, and even Ernest himself suffers--but does he ever look to see why each of those is crumbling?

And that's where the story is. His panic and paranoia are fascinating to experience, simply because he goes to such great lengths for every conceivable attack on the environment. I mean, the book opens with the family at the park and Ernest insisting that they can't use lighter fluid to start a fire on the barbecue because it's harmful, and his family's grumbling stomachs as the cacophonous background noise. It sets the stage wonderfully, and I liked how we got to see the family dynamics change through each new event.

Favorite portion: the family log, and the back and forth between Allison, Gabe, and Ernest inside it. Clever and funny.

[Anna K. Amendolare · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. I should have quit this one, but old habits die hard. Instead, I wasted a month getting through a crummy book, with no redeeming ending. None of the author reviews on the back of the book were true. There wasn't any point to this book, I couldn't figure out where it was going and I didn't like any of the characters, especially the protagonist. He was a terrible person; his wife is DYING OF CANCER, and he is off on some cockamamie scheme and carrying on an affair. The foreshadowing is well done, as right from the first moment you meet him, he is annoying his family and behaving ridiculously. The wife dies from cancer. Very depressing. And, it had a stupid and annoying ending. Please save yourself the trouble, don't bother with this one.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend of mine suggested Neon Green for our book club because she had picked it up from one of those neat, little, free neighborhood libraries. I'm glad she did because I likely would have never read it otherwise. Looking at the plot, I was mostly uninterested. I don't care for 90s nostalgia or suburban life (been there, done that), but I do care for the unusual twist: an alien intruder, so I gave it a shot.

It was good! It's obvious Wappler is a great writer. She knows how to string a sentence together. Her characters' moments of insight feel natural. Her people are believably flawed. Pacing-wise, I thought it got a bit repetitive in the middle and then slow in the last third.

Putting aside the actual content of the book, the main reason why I enjoyed it was because it reminded me there are hidden gems out there. I feel like every book I've read in the past couple of years has been an "it" book people are buzzing about. Neon Green has 79 reviews on Goodreads. It reminded me of a simpler time in my childhood (here is the 90s nostalgia - haha) when I would peruse the library shelves and pick up anything that caught my eye, uninfluenced by the NYT bestseller list. I miss the process of discovering and being surprised (or disappointed) by a book I chose by looks or feel. And to further belabor this point, I think the shift to e-books and online shopping only further limits our exposure to interesting, lesser known books like Neon Green which live outside the algorithm. Anyway, once we're all vaxxed up, I look forward to visiting my local library to pick up a book by vibes or staff pick and feeling that feeling all over again!

[Keith Rosson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adored this moving and tremendously kind novel, and cried VERY MUCH at the end of it. Superb writing, deft characterization, and bighearted as hell. 100% recommended.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel about a family dealing with an external presence interrupting their lives. A novel about a man's obsession at the cost of his family. An alternate history novel, just like our 1994 but with spaceships from Jupiter, even though the presence within the ships never shows itself.

I enjoyed this story through the first section, found myself riveted to it through the second (and longest) section, and didn't particularly enjoy the final section. The characters are well described and their motivations draw you in. The cover blurb is "Funny, sad, weird, timely" and this story is all that. What I didn't like were the loose threads, the biggest near the end when they climb on top of the ship and knock on the glass.

Cautiously recommended; I suspect many book clubs will be diving into this one soon.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I expected. It really isn't a science fiction story but is more of a family drama that takes place in the slightly altered 1990's. I do think it should have a trigger warning, which is that is actually deals very graphically with cancer. I would have been so sorry to recommend this to friends as a sci-fi story based on how it was marketed, because many of them have been through this experience either personally or with a close loved one and they would have been very disturbed by the story. I ended up disliking most of the characters except for Cynthia, who I think was a saint to stay with Ernest long before the events of this story. It was well-written enough that I was engaged and finished it, but I ended up feeling so lousy at the end of this story that I don't think I can recommend this to anyone.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book from one of my favorite Podcaster

The book surprises you over and over, the tone changes throughout being humorous, sad, and philosophical in different phases of the story. Although it takes place outside of a Chicago, Wapplers newer home in California feeds the details of the book, with a 'crunchy' message and easy pace. The period details are fun. That the aliens were from Jupiter, an impossibility, was a little distracting. Choosing a distant star would have been more reasonable, and hence less distracting.

[Nova gallo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was better than I thought it was, given that I had never heard of the author. I didn't really like Ernest (SPOILER ALERT COMING) because he shaved his daughter's hair just for being paranoid, and I'm honestly surprised that she didn't act more angry. If my father made me shave my hair, let's just say that I would commit murder. But overall, I think that this book was not about aliens, it was about the family and how they changed, especially Ernest. I would give it a 3.4, more of a weekend read than anything that I would be addicted to.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any novel that combines an alternate 1990s and Fugazi references and mysterious aliens is A-OK in my book.

[Acacia Ives · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neon Green by Margaret Wappler is a highly recommended alternate history novel set in 1994 in Prairie Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and follows the Allen Family, Ernest and Cynthia, and their two teenagers Alison and Gabe. In this 1994, you can enter a sweepstakes to have a spaceship from Jupiter land in your backyard for 9 months, give or take a few weeks. Everything else is the 1994 you remember.

Ernest Allen, environmental activist and family patriarch, is indignant that Gabe entered the contest and actually won. Once the spaceship lands in their backyard, he is outraged and immediately corners Gabe, the only person over 16 who would have dared enter the sweepstakes. He then starts calling New World Enterprises, the company sponsoring the spaceships. First he wants them to remove it because he is sure that the ship is not environmentally safe and is dumping toxins into their yard every time it dumps gallons of neon green fluid onto his lawn. The EPA has declared it is safe, and Ernest has now real recourse, except to nag New World with phone calls. What kind of environmental footprint is this thing leaving?

He also has his family start a journal to record everything the spaceship does, including it's almost nightly show of lights and beeps and any discharge of the green liquid. They do this, but they also record other, less serious things, much to Ernest's consternation. He is very serious about the log. Ernest becomes increasingly obsessed and paranoid, inflicting his family with his daily preoccupations and diatribes. He really thinks that everyone should feel the same way he does. This obsessing is an on-going pattern for Ernest.

Ultimately, this is not a novel about the spaceship or aliens. It's a dysfunctional family saga. It's about how one man's obsession is affecting his whole family, and making them all suffer needlessly because he needs to blame something. Ernest may be freaking out over the spaceship, but he could just as easily be obsessing over the effect high voltage power lines and/or electromagnetic fields could have on his family's health.

Wappler's story is quite funny at times, especially Gabe and Alison reactions, but it is also heartbreaking. I really grew to dislike Ernest and felt that if he was really that serious, he should have tried to move. I would imagine there would be some kind of real estate market for a home with a spaceship in the backyard. He was so focused on it that he completely lost track of what he claimed to care about - his family - until it was too late to save what was left. My heart broke for Cynthia. She still loved him, but she deserved better from Ernest.

Neon Green is well written, but it also seemed to move slowly. This is a novel for those who like literary fiction involving a dysfunctional family in a unique setting. It isn't a novel for fans of science fiction. The spaceship is there, but it's simple a large visual representation of Ernest's character trait of obsessing over various subjects. Gabe and Alison were highlights. Neon Green could be a good choice for a book club because I imagine there are alternate views. Based on your devotion to environmental causes, you might appreciate Ernest much more than I did, and accept his flaws much easier.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesus. It's been a while since a book made me cry. Wonderful. But still hate the dad.

[Melissa Chadburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Wappler has what I call these great “Lorrie Moore lines”
‘You know what I want?” She said, “I just want my life to hurry up and get beautiful.” -85

She had the kind of soulfulness once-battered dogs possess. 229

He could walk into Alison’s room or his Dad’s and maybe he would but he wanted to hear another voice that wasn’t as devastated as his, that knew more than anyone he knew. -239

That was in reference to Gabe, who found this radio channel that was sort of in between channels and he could hear a woman speaking into the radio every night she had her own show.. there was this spooky things in the nineties and late eighties when sometimes you could engage with phantom people like I had a cordless phone and sometimes the lines would cross and you would get plugged into another person’s conversation. Do you remember that?

This theme of loneliness made me think that perhaps just like all stories are love stories maybe all stories are loneliness stories. and this isn’t a book about a flying saucer really as much as it is about loneliness and as writers and artists we spend so much time alone, then as readers we turn to books to make us feel less alone. We fill our minds and hearts with stories.

[The Bibliofool · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Wappler’s wholly original, nearly unclassifiable, and undeniably brilliant novel Neon Green straddles a balance between science fiction and family fiction (or is it family science?) like no book I have read in recent memory. The somber story set in 1994 of a family in an idyllic Illinois suburb whose lives are upended by the appearance—and subsequent residency—of a mysterious spaceship from Jupiter in their backyard, a dubious “prize” won in a sweepstakes, may sound like a perfect Twilight Zone set-up, but the book subverts any genre expectations about an impending alien invasion by turning inward. In the end, we care more about what’s happening inside the family than what’s inside the mysterious spaceship. Touching on environmentalism, liberal boomer idealism, 90s nostalgia, and government paranoia, and evocative of films such as “Take Shelter" and “Close Encounters”, Neon Green is often heart-wrenching, never condescending (especially in the finely rendered characters and teenagers), ultimately profound, and one of the best books of the year. A true original.

[Insert Blanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

From landing a flying saucer in the backyard to jammin Fugazi in your sister's room and later stealing electricity, this book takes the world you might remember from the 90s and recreates a parallel universe that is brighter, more neon even, and has way cooler radio stations. Dig deep and you'll find this world is at least as fucked as our own, or even worse. Reassemble your Troll Doll collection, or barring that, start a fresh Troll Doll collection and meticulously arrange their freakish hear on your windowsill or desk, then sit down and Read this Book.

[Siel Ju · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Sometimes I try to talk to people and I fail. I fail to say the things I really mean. Which in the end means I was only moving my lips around a series of sounds.”
*
Neon Green is at first a novel that seems to be about a family of four living in a Chicago suburb in the 90s who win a lottery to have an alien spaceship visit their backyard — but ends up being a family drama about coping with the illness and death of a parent. Along the way there are environmental lessons about the state of our planet — tied in with emotional lessons about love and memory. Overall, a sweet, heartfelt read.

[Carolyn DeCarlo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very lightly sci-fi piece of literary fiction. Despite the overwhelming presence of the spaceship from Jupiter taking up residence in a suburban backyard, there is no alien interaction (minimal activity, even) -- the ship is a device, an allegory, but never truly a vehicle. More so, this book is a meditation on grief, eco-consciousness taken to extremes, and the values (or not) of suburban living in 1990s Chicago. Basically, what it says on the tin -- and a worthwhile read, but not a standout, for me.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK. I was pleasantly weepy for days after i finished it. Wappler brings all your '90s feelings rushing back to you, with aliens seamlessly woven in of course, and then she brings you right back to your present, where life is hard and we're all just fumbling along, and then... I WANT to say what then, but I WON'T... except that you're left weepy and wondering where YOUR backyard spaceship is.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is classified as science fiction. Why? Other than the fact that there is a space ship in the story, it really is not that.
Mostly, the protagonist, Earnest, annoys the crap out of me. What an arrogant jerk. Okay, at the end he becomes all Zen Buddhist. This is cool of course, and thankfully the book ended on a better note but really, why torment us, the readers, so long. Really, I hate to be so negative but this book sucked the joy out my life.

[Shayna Sobol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among the many surprises of this debut novel by Margaret Wappler: that despite an alien spaceship being a central character, the story is utterly human and down to earth. It's a quirky tale, yes, with some odd personalities, but it is touching and sad and ultimately beautiful. A great piece of writing!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neon Green is a strangle little gem of a story. While a spaceship from Jupiter is a prominent fixture in the novel, the story is about the flawed and genuine family members. While reading, I laughed out loud, gasped in shock, and wept. I highly recommend this book.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very moving novel that hit very close to home for me. I didn't get invested until the 2nd part of the story, but when I did it really struck a nerve. I've never wept so much while reading. Thank you, Margaret.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. A perfect combination of intelligent conceptual underpinnings and masterful storytelling. Thoughtful, weird, heartbreaking, and fun. Highly recommend.

[Rob Micensky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not what you think it is. Yes, it has spaceships in it, but this is NOT a sci-fi book. The story is primarily about a family living in the Chicago suburbs in 1994-95. Except, in this alternate history, aliens are real, and you can enter a lottery to have them land in your backyard—for 9 months.

This is exactly what happens to the Allen family. Ernest Allen, the fiery conservationist zealot, is the father of teenagers Gabe and Alison. Cynthia, Ernest’s wife, is an accomplished lawyer who fights for the environment in the courtroom. Gabe surreptitiously enters their family in the spaceship lottery—and wins.

When the spaceship arrives, Ernest is enraged. The whole family is advsersely affected by the spaceship’s erratic behavior and mysterious qualities. Not to mention that it’s dumping unknown green sludge in the backyard almost everyday.

Things take a sobering turn when Cynthia develops stage IV breast cancer. Ernest blames the aliens for poisoning his wife. As Ernest grows increasingly more paranoid, and Cynthia’s condition worsens, the family fabric begins to unravel and the Allen’s world begins to cave in around them. Did the aliens cause Cynthia’s cancer? Or something else? Is it just an unfortunate coincidence? Will the aliens ever leave? What are they dumping on the Allen’s lawn?

I think this novel is good—not great. I really wanted to like it more. I love the Chicago suburbs and 90’s culture. This novel has strong doses of both. I love the idea of alternate history. Margaret Wappler’s writing style is smart, funny, and evocative. She can really turn a phrase. If she writes a 2nd novel, I’d likely read it for that reason alone. The Allen family begins keeping a log of all the spaceship’s activities. Several chapters of the book are devoted to the family’s log entries. They are the funniest parts of the book.

Now for what I didn’t like. Ernest is an extremely dislikable main character, and his environmental zeal makes him seem one-dimensional-especially in the beginning. Like, we get it, he’s an environmental nut. I guess he needs that quality if we are to believe his descent into obsessive paranoia. I just didn’t like him. The Earth Day celebration—the author builds this up as if Ernest is the president of Earth Day for the entire Earth. It’s just like a village festival, right? That seemed incongruous to me. The dialogue was mostly realistic, but there were times when I just felt like the conversation wasn’t rooted in reality. The third act of this book is really good, where the first two acts are just kind of blah. The denouement does kind of carry on too long in my opinion.

Overall, this was an above average debut novel for Wappler, and an above average read for me.

[Dana Nield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neon Green is a novel about a family who must deal with an alien spaceship in their backyard. It's the alternate 1990s, where anyone 16 or older can enter a sweepstakes to have a spaceship from Jupiter stay in your backyard for about nine months.

I loved that this was a novel about the family dynamics as they individually and collectively dealt with this *literally* alien presence. Family dynamics surrounding big, unusual, catastrophic, or straight-up weird events are a special focus of mine as I round out my MFA!

Unfortunately I did not love the execution. There was a ton of dialogue, which made this a dynamic and fast read. But I wanted a bit more internalization, a bit more background action. What were some of the daughter's nervous habits? I don't know. What does the subtle change in the son's tone indicate? I don't remember there being many of these cues that weren't outright stated in more of a telling instead of showing manner. Which brings me to my next point-

There were a lot of adjectives in this book. A lot of adjectives. I have a tendency to take pretty much anything I read too seriously, including a novel about spaceships in 1994. (I had the same problem with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and pretty much anything by Chuck Palahniuk - I have to not take them so seriously.) Some of the over-the-top writing probably fits this topic (aliens) very well! Sometimes, however, I found myself wishing the author would write simpler sentences. That might be more of a personal preference than anything.

The last note I want to make is...I wish I cared more about the characters. Ernest was infuriating. It was very difficult for me to sympathize with him at all, especially as the book carried on and things spiraled. There is a devastating event I will not ruin...but my reaction when it happened was, "Oh, really? That's where this is going?" I was more surprised it happened than anything, because I---well, I think the novel might have even worked a bit better if it didn't go to extremes, I guess I'll say. I don't know. I'm getting cryptic to avoid spoilers! I just wish the book went deeper with the characters, so I could care about them more than I did in the end.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
'Neon Green' by Margaret Wappler made me realize that there is a subgenre of fiction that I would term 'Suburban Speculative Fiction.' It's a subgenre that I've encountered before with Don DeLillo and John Cheever but it was Wappler's novel that tied all of these pieces together and made me realize that it was its own type of story. To me, 'Suburban Speculative Fiction' follows people (usually a family or couple) living in what would be considered the quintessential American suburb that is beset by strange occurrences, be they the threat of radiation, a spaceship landing in the backyard, or listening in to to the conversations of neighbors through a new radio. It takes what has been espoused as the 'American Dream' and turns it on its head so that things aren't quite normal. I find this subgenre fascinating because it's a way to comment on some of the stranger aspects of normal life through a speculative vein.
In 'Neon Green,' the story tracks a family through nine months of their lives as a spaceship sits serenely in their backyard. It flashes lights and plugs itself into their power but it never opens and there is never a hint of what could be inside. The spaceship is a way to manifest the otherwordly in an otherwise normal life as the family deals with illness and adolescence. Wappler's prose accentuates the normal beside the abnormal and I found that it made me feel more keenly for the characters. I will be interested to see what she writes in the future and if it continues to be in this 'Suburban Speculative' subgenre or if it will tip further into the science fiction realm.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! It got into me deeper than any other book I read in a few years.
It was incorrectly put into the sci-fi section, but it's not about it. Aliens' spaceship in the backyard is actually a metaphor, like we say elephant in the room. Well, yes, it actually exists, but it's just a thick hint to see how everyone is alien to each other. Weird magician and a wig lady, the lady who talks via radio at nights, and who doesn't want to hear anyone back. There's also alienation happening in Allen's family (just swap one L for an I, and you've got another one of those hints). Ernest, passionate environmentalist, is obsessed with the idea of pollution from the spaceship, and this is his way of dealing with the fact that his wife soon will be gone. At some stage he also distances from his kids.
So, through this flying saucer from Jupiter author actually tells us very earthly story about ourselves, importance of families and home, while reminding that Earth is also our home.

[Lorry Chwazik · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of many government-approved alien spaceships lands in the backyard of a suburban Chicagoan family and heralds the dissolution of their usual family relationships. Dad Ernest, a strident environmentalist, becomes obsessed with its potential toxic impacts, mom Cynthia is diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and kids Alison and Gabe navigate all these changes plus adolescence. I’m not quite sure how all the themes in this book tie together, but I did enjoy the realistic dialogue created by the author. Warning: anyone who’s experienced a loved one dying of cancer will be triggered by Wappler’s non-sentimental yet caring descriptions of Cynthia’s illness. Engaging and compelling, but huh…? Someone explain this book to me 🙃 !