Dave Kenney’s historical novel mixes UFO lore, magical realism and cult psychology—but its most compelling story never quite gets the room it deserves.
Helium is one of the most frustrating books I’ve read this year.
Not because it’s badly written. Quite the opposite.
It’s frustrating because buried inside it are two genuinely interesting novels, and they’re fighting each other for space. (Alas, the one that wins is probably the least interesting.)
I can see the vision
Dave Kenney has written a novel with a female lead. It has more female characters than male ones. For being set in the 1940s and 50s, the women have a fair amount of agency and freedom. The women are not sexualised and any sexual references are initiated by women. This is, by all accounts, a pretty progressive book. I can see the vision.
But it feels like Helium rests on these laurels and soon forgets to give the women of the book character development or time to shine.
Let me explain…
Reason I’m frustrated #1 – it should be 2 separate books
I’ll give you a breakdown of the core plot:
Helium by Dave Kenney is historical fiction set in 1940s and ’50s California during the rise of UFO sightings. Joan, a soul adrift, finds companionship in a commune for the spiritually desperate and cosmically curious. There she falls into the orbit of George, a former guru turned line cook whose claims of UFO sightings gradually earn him fame through magazines and books. Desperate to believe there is something beyond herself, Joan follows his journey while searching the skies for answers.
Now, here is where I’m pissed off. This is what was pitched in the very first line:
Joan has a gravity problem—and she’s desperate to keep it hidden.
It’s on the author’s instagram:
Oh yeah. Joan floats. It’s on the cover. It happens several times in the book. That’s seriously cool! That doesn’t happen in all books! That is definitely something that should be explored, right?
Welp.
Joan’s ability to literally defy gravity becomes a surprisingly minor B-plot beside George’s rise as a UFO celebrity. I’m cool telling you this because it doesn’t spoil the plot. In fact, it has absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever until the very last revelation and the levitation could almost have been removed from the novel without changing most of the story.
The problem is that every time Joan starts becoming interesting, the narrative turns back towards George. The result is that the woman literally defying gravity somehow becomes the least explored mystery in the novel.
Reason I’m frustrated #2- it was pitched wrong
I also think the marketing has done this book a disservice.
Booksprout lists Helium as women’s fiction featuring a complex female protagonist. Joan is certainly the protagonist on paper, but emotionally the novel revolves around George.
The women largely exist in relation to him: believing him, supporting him, questioning him or trying to advance his ambitions. Even conversations between the women repeatedly return to George and his mission. There is not a single chapter of the book that would pass the Bechdel test (not béchamel as I sometimes remember it). Originating from a 1985 comic strip by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, the test has three baseline criteria:
1- Their conversation must be about something besides a man.
2- It has to have at least two women in it (who are usually required to have names).
3- They must talk to each other.
Helium’s women live, work and think for George- how to help George, what George thinks, what his motives are, where he is, how to help him further his desire to get famous.
Thus, Helium is a manic-pixie-dream-girl book set in a historical context. The book is not about Joan or any of the other women. It is a book about George
The Big Redeemer
As I noted in the opening, despite my frustrations, this is not a bad book. In fact, it is fantastically researched and the historical setting is one of the best I’ve read. The author isn’t faking interest in UFOs purely to tout Helium. By his own admission, the extra-terrestrial has been a life-long passion. His Instagram feed is testament to this:
Mixing photographs of UFO enthusiasts with the pulp fiction of the day, the references within Kenney’s setting are sympathetic and realistic to those of the 1950s.
Finial thoughts
That’s the frustrating thing about Helium. Dave Kenney can clearly write. I’d probably read him again. The historical backdrop is fascinating, and the research into early UFO culture feels authentic throughout.
I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the novel I’d desperately wanted to read—the story of Joan, the woman who couldn’t stay on the ground—was forever waiting just out of reach.
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Preview by Emma Sinclair
Emma Sinclair is a Scottish writer and book reviewer behind The Second Draft. She writes about books, culture and the things she can’t stop thinking about, from speculative fiction and internet history to the odd ideas hidden between the pages.
Check out The Second Draft’s latest posts
- The Yesteryear Performance
- It Started With Grimes
- Helium Review: The Woman Who Floated Should Have Been the Story
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