This Planet Will Kill You

Abstract

A science-fiction thriller about alienation, femininity, race, and disability.&nbsp;This Planet Will Kill You follows Gwen Elliott, a young woman who has been alienatedall her life; being biracial, adopted, and neurodivergent, she has never fit in anywhere. Gwendiscovers through a client of the literary magazine where she works that she may be the vesselfor an alien consciousness, one of thirteen that have been hidden in plain sight among humansfor almost 25 years. Trapped between Gavin, her controlling fiancee, and Ivo, the supposedleader of the alien vessels, Gwen is pulled in opposite directions and unsure where her loyaltieslie. Ivo presents her with an ultimatum: their spaceship leaves on her wedding day. Facedbetween the pressures of humanity and the unknown dangers of leaving everything behind forouter space, Gwen must make a vital choice about how she wants to chart the course of her life.One of the main themes I explore in This Planet Will Kill You is alienation and isolation,especially from a marginalized perspective. Aliens have often been used in science fiction toexamine any kind of Other, be it a literal minority group or a societal fear. However, I havealways been drawn to aliens, as they offer a perspective that allows you to examine commonsocietal expectations that are unusual in any other context, but are normal because we have beensocialized to believe that they are normal. Though Gwen&rsquo;s experiences are not an exactrepresentation of mine, growing up as a mixed-race and neurodivergent woman made me feel asthough I was not privy to some innate, human truth that all of my white, neurotypical, andsocially-adjusted peers knew deep in their bones. Having Gwen already harbor these experiencesalong with being an alien vessel presented an opportunity to lean into a genre-fiction metaphorfor feeling as though you have dual, multiple identities living inside of you, and having topresent as something you&rsquo;re not in order to fit in within society.</p