Review: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE by Andrew Smith

3.90 STARS — 1,877 GoodReaders

The GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE was a really interesting read. It has characters that were very well developed and if I had to classify it, I would say that it is a Coming-of-Age/Scifi hybrid.

***Special Note
Consider yourself warned.  I have to say that this will not be a book for everyone. There's a huge focus on sex and the book is rife with profanity. Even the giant bugs have sex-- and they may have said some naughty things too.

The end of the world began at about 2:00 a.m., around three-and-a-half feet away from a discarded floral-print sleeper sofa infested with pubic lice in Ealing, Iowa. 

BACKSTORY
Austin Szerba lives in a small town in Iowa.  He has a best friend .AND. a girlfriend .AND. life is pretty good. That is until Austin and friend accidentally unleash an army of unstoppable giant praying mantises.

The story is told from Austin's point of view.  It's unique in that he considers himself a historian of his own life. And ultimately we readers get to experience two timelines. The first timeline is in the present as Austin maneuvers through school and life in a small town. The other begins with his grandfather's survival of WWII.  It leads to Austin's father's birth and eventually Austin's own arrival into the world. It's a tale of how it took luck and perfect timing to initiate the destruction of the United States of America, and Austin's survival of it.


Three Stars?  Four Stars?  This is one of those difficult books to rate. I enjoyed reading GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE and feel my time wasn't wasted,  BUT I really have no desire to every read it again.

“Everyone on every road that crossed beneath the point of my pen was always going to do the same things over and over and over.
I was confused.
How could I be in love with a girl ‘and’ a boy, at the same time?
I was trapped forever.
You know what I mean.”

THE GOOD

--How the story was constructed. The use of historical perspective was just great.

--Portrayal of teen angst.  You should know that a large portion of this book is character development of teens.  And there's a wonkingly large amount of angst involved; and it is very well done.

--Humor.  Wonderful humor throughout. Some of it is gallows humor but most is just humor involving the human condition. Delicious.

THE LESS GOOD

--There's a lack of drama involving the creatures. They were never scary. And not all that funny either.

--The book's too long. I love quirky books. Especially a quirky book with interesting characters, but the amount of quirky I can appreciate is limited.  This book frequently bored me. It might not be that way for you.

--Repetitive. The main character is so obsessed with his 'manly parts' that it ended up being boringly repetitive.

So why is GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE on MUSTREADYA?  [Yes, GoodBooksforKids is going to become MUSTREAD YA and KIDLIT when I have time.] It's on the blog because the characters, both primary and secondary, are well drawn.  And it's on here because I was glad I read the book, and I think others are going to enjoy it as well.

Pam~


GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE
by Andrew Smith

Reading Information:
Word Count: 100,976
Page Count: 432
Accelerated Reader: 6.2 / points: 16.0
AR quiz: 165472
--sample pages and reviews available

Other resources:
NYTimes review
Washington Post review
Entertainment review
CommonsenseMedia