Off the Shelf Media

If you ask any avid reader what their go-to suggestion or must-read book is, you’ll get a million different answers. Naturally, you’ll also hear of titles in a million different genres. 

Of course, not every book is going to be a must-read for every reader. If you hate fantasy, you’re unlikely to enjoy The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, despite how widely acclaimed a title it is. Not because it is a bad book, but because it isn’t your cup of tea. 

This book, everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too: a book by jomny sun, transcends genre. It doesn’t matter if you’re into fantasy, sci-fi, horror, or romance; this is the one and only book that I confidently can say should be read by everyone and anyone. 

It is my ultimate recommendation and go-to. And yes, I spelled all of that correctly, at least, I spelled it the same way as the author spells it on the cover. 

This book was recommended to me while I was in college and going through a particularly tough year. Today, I’ve reread this book almost every year since, and I’ve lent it out to everyone who will take it. Not to mention, I’ve also purchased it to give as a gift several times. 

Truly, it’s one of the greatest books I’ve read, perhaps ever. I love this book so much that I even have a tattoo inspired by it. Suffice to say, it’s a good one. Let’s get into why. 

Overqualified is an understatement 

According to his website’s “About” page, Sun is a doctoral candidate at MIT and a creative researcher at Harvard metaLAB. He also possesses a master’s degree in architecture from Yale and a bachelor’s in engineering from the University of Toronto. Wow. 

If that isn’t impressive enough, he was a screen and TV writer for the Emmy-nominated sixth season of Bojack Horseman on Netflix, among other things. 

He was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2019, and in 2021, he was named to Adweek’s Creative 100. Is this guy my hero?

In 2019, he also gave a TED Talk featuring illustrations and themes from this book, which has received over 4 million views at the time of writing this article. 

In addition to this title, he is also a New York Times best-selling author for Goodbye, again: essays, reflections, and illustrations, and the illustrator for songwriter, playwright, producer, actor, and musical genius Lin-Manuel Miranda on his book, Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You. 

Yeah, I think this guy is my hero. 

“when two aliebns find each other in a strange place, it feels a litle more like home” 

Simple, yet effective

Without giving too much away, the plot for this story is not a grandiose adventure but a simple one. While not obvious at first, it’s the same journey all of us find ourselves on at one point or another. 

“jomny,” our little, rounded alien protagonist, has been assigned by his colleagues to visit planet “earbth” to study “humabns.”

Within the first page, its evident that jomny is an outcast, in both personality and physical appearance. He is distinctly different from his peers and aware of it. 

Upon arriving to earbth, everything is not as it seems. With child-like curiosity, he explores the world and the characters around him, learning about friendship, love, life, and meaning. 

During his journey, he meets an owl suffering from impostor syndrome, a workaholic beaver, a lonely tree, and an introverted hedgehog struggling to become an artist – to name a few. 

Each character serves as a lesson to situations and problems that are egregiously human, despite the characters not being so. 

“the truth is we all achieve greatness. the only difference  is the size of our audiences.”

In design and delivery, Sun perfectly balances humor with insightful reflection, bringing to focus what most of us would rather keep out of view. In this way, the reader is gently guided by the hand to face their own truths, whether they want to or not, much like the many colorful characters in the book. 

“i was so woried about wat i would become in the future that i didnt realize i can be anything i want to be right now” 

This book is existential, enlightening, and ultimately, a call for introspective reflection that we all could benefit from and find solace in. 

Stylistic genius 

everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too is a graphic novel, and Sun truly stretches out his illustrator legs for this one. 

Much like the theming, the art style is simple but not subtle. With cartoonish, thick lines, each character is designed almost like a notebook doodle, but Sun makes several direct and intentional decisions to adapt the design to better serve the characters and dialogue being delivered. 

For instance, jomny comes across an otter, who distinctly identifies as an “auteur.” For this character, all dialogue is written in Bell MT STD type font, and it speaks quite eloquently compared to most of the other characters. It’s a small, but clever, choice. 

“to experiemce sombodys art is to be invited into a silent conversation they are having with themself” 

Bookworms will rejoice at seeing the detail woven throughout the book. For the hardcover version, the inside cover includes a crudely drawn map, assumedly drawn by jomny. The front and endpapers also feature his daily activity log, which is worth going back to upon finishing the book. 

My favorite detail: Sun includes a page at the end of the book merely to provide more information on each of the font types used. 

While these are only minor additions that might not matter to the vast majority, it’s a nice touch to the presentation and drives home the value and case for physical media in an increasingly digital world. 

Despite the cartoonish depictions, this graphic novel is entirely in black and white. Certainly, this could’ve been a financial decision; however, I would venture to guess that it was done intentionally to symbolize how many of life’s scenarios that we place into gray areas can also be deceptively simple. 

Final thoughts 

This title wasn’t on my list of top five books to read this summer because it’s a book to read at any point in the year. At any stage of life. 

If you’re feeling lonely, struggling to take a step back from your job, afraid of being vulnerable, or feeling trapped in the endless doom scroll, this book is for you. 

Almost every year, I reread this book. Each time, I take away something different from it. Not because the book has changed, but because I have changed. As I age and my priorities differ, I realize I relate to characters that left little mark the year prior. 

While the book itself takes around half an hour to read, the thoughts and feelings it elicits will linger for much longer. 

Through the curious eyes of an alien, Sun depicts what it truly means to be “humabn.” 

To end, I’ll share my favorite quote from the book. 

“look. life is bad. everyones sad. we’re all gona die. but i alredy bought this inflatable boumcy castle so are u gona take ur shoes off or wat”