Grasshopper Jungle - Andrew Smith
Genre: Fiction / Young Adult / Sci-Fi
Edition: http://tinyurl.com/l349asr
Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.
To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He's stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it's up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.
To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He's stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it's up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.
Summary:
Grasshopper Jungle is just one of those books that is so weird and messed up beyond reality that it is wholly and unbelievably awesome. Love, giant bugs and the end of the world mix harmoniously in this bizarre coming of age story.
My thoughts:
This book has been on my to-read list for a good long while and mixed with the profound love that virtually oozes from my co-workers in pools, regarding Andrew Smith and his books, I naturally decided to pick up the weirdest one of the lot.
Grasshopper Jungle begins in just that, Grasshopper Jungle, where Austin and Robby frequently skate in the small town of Ealing, Iowa. Pretty soon after they're beaten up for being 'queers' and little do they know that this is the beginning of the End of the World.
Fast forward a few chapters and soon there are six foot tall praying mantises running about the place killing and eat everyone they set their sights on and shagging to their hearts content on the sofa infested with pubic lice. Yeah, that.
The whole book is a series of paths all rushing to a central point in Ealing, Iowa, where underground bunkers hide, swirling balls of luminescent moss smash and infect unsuspecting queer bullies, squelching bug eggs pulsate and drool, and a two headed boy sits upon a shelf, twitching away, like he has been for decades.
With every sentence the lunacy of this book grows greater and greater and its brilliant.
Austin, our narrator and budding historian accounts everything, right down to his sexual fantasies with his two best friends, his Polish family past, as well as the love life of the local Pancake House chef Ah Won Sing. Seriously, this kid is all-seeing.
He's incredibly thoughtful and torn between his emotions for his girlfriend and his best friend Robby in a perfectly orchestrated LGBT plot arc, yet he is struggling to hold it together amidst the end of the world and the giant bugs rampaging across Iowa. The relationship between these friends was both overwhelming and heart-breaking and I wanted them all to find love and happiness somehow though I did find Shann a tad grating and thought Robby was more of a perfect match for Austin!
This book is incredibly sexual and violent, detailing every bloody attack and gooey explosion(both human and bug). There are several moments in the book that enlighten us as to just how much these giant praying mantises love to eat and fuck and I'm proud to admit I absolutely loved every scene that they did this. It was weird, cringey and hilarious in so many ways.
Grasshopper Jungle begins in just that, Grasshopper Jungle, where Austin and Robby frequently skate in the small town of Ealing, Iowa. Pretty soon after they're beaten up for being 'queers' and little do they know that this is the beginning of the End of the World.
Fast forward a few chapters and soon there are six foot tall praying mantises running about the place killing and eat everyone they set their sights on and shagging to their hearts content on the sofa infested with pubic lice. Yeah, that.
The whole book is a series of paths all rushing to a central point in Ealing, Iowa, where underground bunkers hide, swirling balls of luminescent moss smash and infect unsuspecting queer bullies, squelching bug eggs pulsate and drool, and a two headed boy sits upon a shelf, twitching away, like he has been for decades.
With every sentence the lunacy of this book grows greater and greater and its brilliant.
Austin, our narrator and budding historian accounts everything, right down to his sexual fantasies with his two best friends, his Polish family past, as well as the love life of the local Pancake House chef Ah Won Sing. Seriously, this kid is all-seeing.
He's incredibly thoughtful and torn between his emotions for his girlfriend and his best friend Robby in a perfectly orchestrated LGBT plot arc, yet he is struggling to hold it together amidst the end of the world and the giant bugs rampaging across Iowa. The relationship between these friends was both overwhelming and heart-breaking and I wanted them all to find love and happiness somehow though I did find Shann a tad grating and thought Robby was more of a perfect match for Austin!
This book is incredibly sexual and violent, detailing every bloody attack and gooey explosion(both human and bug). There are several moments in the book that enlighten us as to just how much these giant praying mantises love to eat and fuck and I'm proud to admit I absolutely loved every scene that they did this. It was weird, cringey and hilarious in so many ways.
The writing is as bizarre as the things that are going on, but Austin is a hair brained, horny teenage boy and as such is honest and insightful and his sarcastic remarks leave you grinning psychotically.
The only thing that I could possibly compare this book to is something like Day of the Triffids, and even then that's pushing it. Grasshopper Jungle is unlike anything I've seen before which is a rarity in itself, and that uniqueness is what makes Grasshopper Jungle so appealing.
Grasshopper Jungle is the weirdest novel I have read so far this year(which I realise isn't much but I doubt I'll read anything on the same level) and leaves me craving a world which is over run with giant bugs(or guinea pigs) that rule the world. Purely because I think I'd weirdly enjoy watching the end of the world.
I hope to see more 'weird fiction' from Andrew Smith and I'm sure he'll deliver with his next novel, The Alex Crow!
Final Word: Like a horror B movie trapped in the bowels of Netflix, Grasshopper Jungle breaks away from the norm with it's snappy mandibles and firmly grips you in its fudged up fantasy.
Star Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Buy: If you want your brain to melt, yes.
Borrow: Definitely, if you want your brain to melt.
Further Reading Suggestions:
Err, WEIRD STUFF.
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