I don’t even know how to review this book (which is why I’ve put it off for a week). It definitely grabbed my attention, but I have no idea if I really liked it or not…
“History provides a compelling argument that every scientist who tinkers around with unstoppable shit needs a reliable flamethrower.”
Andrew Szerba is 16, lives in a small town in Iowa, and has a major obsession with history — primarily his own, but also the general way that lines of history cross and interact over time. He’s dating a girl named Shann, and has a best friend named Robby. Both of these people make him feel horny, but in different ways. Lots of things make Andrew horny, and he will tell you about all of them. One thing that does not make him horny: the giant man-eating bugs that have recently taken over his town.
Grasshopper Jungle is one of those YA novels that takes totally normal teenage activities (making out with your girlfriend, smoking cigarettes, screwing around on a skateboard) and drops them into a total abnormal world (see: man-eating bugs). Kind of like The Age of Miracles, with a lot more sex and violence. It works in some ways, and doesn’t in others. Overall, it’s an impressive effort even if some parts (the repetition, particularly) didn’t click for me.
