Once Upon a Twilight!: Book Tour: Grasshopper Jungle | Andrew Smith | Review

Title: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE

Author: Andrew Smith

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Release Date: 2/11/14

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 is stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann.

Ultimately, it is 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.

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This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

As I read through Grasshopper Jungle at one point in the novel I had to stop and wonder what in the world am I reading. As I sat there contemplating the weird craziness that is in this book, I realized that that it didn’t matter because I simply enjoyed reading it.

Now before I go on to discuss how great this novel is, let me start by saying that this book is not for everybody. I repeat, it is not for everyone. For example, in a letter to the reader, the publisher tells how after reading Andrew Smith’s book, she uses two choice words in a beautifully cast, heartfelt email. She then goes on to say that if one finds her language offensive then this is definitely not the book for you. However, she also goes on to say that every once in a while we need to read a type of book like this and I agree. For me, dealing with school and the many other tiresome activities that teenages go through, Grasshopper Jungle was a sweet and crazy relief.

To describe Andrew Smith’s writing style and the overall outlook of Grasshopper Jungle, I would have to say its sort of like a mixture of John Green and James Patterson. Seriously, with the emotional pulls and heart stopping actions, not to mention some hilarious scenes, I’m truly surprised that this is the first I’ve heard of Andrew Smith. With his crafty and witty writing style Smith develops a story that leaves you scratching your head and wondering what could possibly come next.

Then comes the characters whose actions and feelings develop an amazing story. Now about the storyline, simply put, Grasshopper Jungle is a coming of age novel dealing with the end of the world. Of course you can’t just have the normal problems that come with the end of the world , you also have the confusing things like teenage love and all the roller coaster feelings that come with it. So basically this book is a bundle of craziness that will leave you breathless. As I said before though, this novel isn’t for everyone. This book is for the people who need a little weird and craziness in their lives to make everything else just a little bit better.

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Andrew Smith is the award-winning author of several Young Adult novels, including the critically acclaimed Winger (Starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness—an Amazon “Best of the Year”) and The Marbury Lens (A YALSA BFYA, and Starred reviews and Best of the Year in both Publishers Weekly and Booklist).

He is a native-born Californian who spent most of his formative years traveling the world. His university studies focused on Political Science, Journalism, and Literature. He has published numerous short stories and articles. Grasshopper Jungle, coming February 11, 2014, is his seventh novel. He lives in Southern California.