Grasshopper Jungle, reviewed

"Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news. Bad news is we're postponing that test indefinitely. Good news is we have a much better test for you: fighting an army of Mantis Men. Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts." -Cave Johnson, Portal 2

Author Andrew Smith's personal mantra is "Keep YA weird." Mission accomplished, Mr. Smith. Singlehandedly, I might add. This is one weird book, like few I've ever read before. If that quote from Portal 2 seems random, it is, yet it still sums up the overall plot of this book as well as anything I could probably generate on my own.

The basics are this. The book is narrated by Austin Szreba, a teenager of Polish descent in the economically depressed town of Earling, Iowa. Like many teens, Andrew is a jumbled mess of hormones, complicated by the fact his best friend, Robbie, is gay and, while he is very much in love with his girlfriend Shann, he loves Robbie too. You would think this seemingly mundane life problem would take a backseat to the six foot tall praying mantises that start hatching out of the townspeople and eating everyone in sight. You would be wrong.

This book is many things, straightforward is not one of them. Andrew interweaves his family history, stories of a mad scientist who created the mantis men, his relationship problems and everyday struggles, even his brother's combat injury in Afghanistan, in a rich, often humorous, sometimes poignant tapestry. It's much more a coming of age story set against a darkly comic (if not gruesome) apocalypse, rather than an end-of-the-world thriller. Not at all what I was expecting. One critic said Smith must have been channeling the ghost of Kurt Vonnegut, and the book is very reminiscent of books like Slaughterhouse Five. The ending, in particular, took me completely by surprise.

It's not my favorite book, but if you don't mind a detour into the eccentric, it's worth the read. Like the last book I reviewed, The Fifth Wave, this one is also being adapted into a movie, with Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Shaun of the Dead) tapped to direct. I think it should be right up his alley.

-Mike, out.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...

Getting back to the roots of this blog, I will be returning to book reviews for awhile. I've been on a post-apocalyptic kick lately, probably seeking inspiration for the book I'm working on now. Three books, all about dealing with the world's end, and they could not be more different. One a very good if fairly standard YA thriller, one a very weird YA book that could have been written by the ghost of Kurt Vonnegut, and a very adult book that reads like a Patrick O'Brien novel if Jack Aubrey traded his 19th century sailing frigate for a 21st century guided missile destroyer.

Today's offering is The Fifth Wave, which asks the question, "What would happen if a civilization that had mastered interstellar travel decided they had a beef with us?", and answers that question with "We would get our asses handed to us, quickly." The book centers  on 16 year old Cassie, one of the very few humans who survived the first four waves of the alien attack, and mostly centers on her desperate quest to reunite with her little brother. Along the way she is shot by a Silencer, an alien in human form who roam the countryside in a "mopping up" operation, hunting the last remaining human survivors. Seemingly miraculously surviving this encounter, she is found by a local farmboy, Evan, who nurses her back to health and seems eager to help Cassie find her brother. But the invader's most devastating weapon is the fear and distrust they have successfully sown among the human survivors, making them wonder who is an alien hiding in plain sight, and Cassie must decide if she can trust Evan, who's obviously hiding something...

The other part of the book centers on Cassie's schoolmate and long time crush Ben, who's been taken along with other surviving kids to a military base, and pressed into service to fight the alien invaders. After a brutal training regiment (that kind feels like a weak rip-off of Full Metal Jacket), Ben and his squad are sent off to strike back at their faceless enemies. But something is off about their mission, their training, and most of all their commanders...

The two narratives finally intertwine in a satisfying and thrilling climax, which sets up the next book in the series. The book is immersive and well written, and there's a lot I like about the Others and the way they attack humanity, and shows more realistically how such an advanced civilization would walk over us without any trouble, and the only reason they haven't killed everyone by the end of the first book is (MINOR SPOILER ALERT) not all the aliens are on board with the "kill all humans" plan.

Overall, I liked this book quite a bit and look forward to reading the next book in the series. It's been well received and also has been adapted into a movie starring Chloe Moretz and Liev Schreiber due out next year.  Check it out!