My Life Among Humans

A 2024 YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens

My Life Among Humans is an evocative, melancholy, and ultimately hopeful story of a solitary alien’s misguided search for connection among its human subjects.

A nameless alien data compiler comes to Earth to study humans, setting up shop on the outskirts of a small desert community in North America. Working under forced labor, it must watch humans in complete secrecy while sending regular reports to its manager back home. Using spore-like technology to read the minds of his hosts, the alien quickly takes a special interest in Will, one of his early subjects. That interest proves to be a problem when the alien is accidentally revealed to Will's family and it takes desperate measures to save its own life.

In doing so, it discovers a forbidden ability...it can control human minds. Now, the alien struggles to keep this secret from its manager, deal with a growing number of suspicious humans, and come to terms with its ethically questionable decisions. My Life Among Humans is a beautifully painted, evocative first graphic novel from illustrator and cartoonist Jed McGowan.

Jed McGowan writes and draws in Los Angeles, California. His previous comics include Gonzalo (nominated for an Ignatz Award), Uninhabitable (included in Best American Comics 2019), and Lone Pine (published with a grant from the Xeric Foundation). He’s also designed backgrounds for animation and created illustrations for the New York Times, Vice, and other publications