Encounters

I’d be lying if I said Pasulka’s narration didn’t throw me at first. Her voice has the cadence of a podcast host comfortable with dead air, which works until you realize she’s dropping you into the middle of a cautionary tale about a woman who woke to a presence in her bedroom that *wasn’t* human. The pacing is deliberate, almost hesitant, as if she’s acutely aware that every word risks sounding like lunacy—yet the stories demand to be told. One detail that stuck with me: a man whose “alien” encounter left him with a scar that defied medical explanation. Pasulka doesn’t dramatize; she lets the absurdity and terror speak for themselves. That said, her narration can feel uneven. The chapter on Silicon Valley’s obsession with extraterrestrial consciousness drags, and at times, her delivery veers into breathy conspiracy-theorist territory, which undercuts the book’s otherwise rigorous approach. Still, by the final chapter, I was sold. The production is clean—no distracting reverb or odd silences—just Pasulka’s voice and a steady stream of stories that linger like a half-remembered dream. If you’re here for proof, this isn’t it. If you’re here for the unsettling possibility that we’re not alone, this might be the closest you’ll get.