“I read somewhere that human beings are genetically
predisposed to record history.”
-Grasshopper Jungle, p.1
Austin, the main character, is on the cusp of growing up and
learning who he is. He is a recorder of history. His room is filled with many
notebooks of his accounts of the going-ons of a small town in the Midwest. This
funny tale combines love, lust, selfishness, friendship, and an alien strain
into a gooey mess of a story. A lot happens throughout the story and some of
the jumps are a little jolting, but so is adolescence. Austin is a very
confused teenage boy whose thoughts and wants sometimes keep him from having a
clear head on his shoulders. Together with his friends Robby and Shann Collins,
Austin tries to piece together who he is and save the world from aliens bent on
making the small town their own.
This is a quirky coming of age story told through the foggy
mind of a realistic teenager. Robby and Austin get into a lot of trouble
together from breaking into a store Austin works for to climbing the roof of a
pancake house. Austin weaves this story between his narrative and what he
learns to record in the future. Together this creates a narrative that fills
the reader in on all angles of the story with every character having a role. This
story is on the verge of being a hit for many high-schoolers eager to read a
story they can laugh with and relate to. The story is unpredictable with plenty
of witty lines that will keep readers laughing until the last page.
Title: Grasshopper Jungle
Author: Andrew Smith
Release Date: February 11th, 2014
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
*Digital galley granted through Penguin's First To Read Program
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