We Are the Ants

it’s hard to put such an emotionally complex novel into a condensed description but i’ll try. (trigger warnings for the book (spoilers ahead) include: discussion of suicide, self harm, assault, blood, attempted rape, child abuse, medical experimentation, discussion of a miscarriage, drug and alcohol abuse and the end of the world). at it’s core “we are the ants” is a book about dealing with grief, and how you move on from that grief, and learn that life can still be good even with all the darkness that seems ever present. it’s about a very emotionally damaged boy called Henry who lost his boyfriend to suicide and blames himself, whose grandmother is slowly being overtaken by Alzheimer’s, whose father left when he was young, whose school life is full of bullies and isolation and who just happens to be periodically abducted by aliens. you see, it’s also a book about deciding whether the world is worth saving. if you were given a button, a big red one, and told that if you pressed it the world would be saved, and if you didn’t it would be destroyed, what would you do? this is the choice Henry is faced with: 144 days to decide whether the world deserves another chance. he doesn’t know why he was chosen, all he knows is that when it comes down to it, he’s not too sure he wants to press that button. but, as the description on the back reads, Henry is a scientist and he weighs the pros and cons, he looks for the good, even if it’s pretty hard to find, as much as he sees the bad, and what's more is that i found myself doing the same. characters that i hated when i first started reading, i started to, if not like then at least understand to some point. i ordered this book on saturday afternoon and it came sunday morning. i started reading it sunday afternoon and i couldn’t stop. i was drawn into henry’s head, into his grief and his indecision. his emotional journey throughout this book was amazingly pieced together by the author, the cover art is beautiful, and although it wasn’t perfect it was close enough to get a full 5 stars from me. i've convinced two friends to read it, both of whom loved it and my mother read the back and said she got goosebumps just from that and that she'd like to borrow it from me too.

I haven't even finished the book but I desperately want to give this 5 stars. I'm only halfway through it. Honestly, after reading Silvera's 'They Both Die at the End' and 'History is all You Left Me', my expectations for LGBT books after 'A Little Life' fell dramatically. I want to say to Adam Silvera: "Read this book! this is what I had expected of you in your books, which you didn't deliver at all!" Guys, I am so late in to this party; I love love LOVE 'We Are the Ants'. All I can say about this story for now is it's raw, beautiful, tragic, frank, insightful and relatable. I wish I knew a Henry Denton in my life in regards to as a friend, not someone who is constantly bullied or suffers from heartbreaks and pain, a cruel hand with which life dealt him. Even though he's gay, I want to hug and hold him. The characterisations done by SDH are beautiful and touching. I can't sing enough this novel's praises. Guy, this is worth every pretty penny.

We Are the Ants is a hybrid YA novel, with elements of sci-fi, coming of age and romance thrown in. Henry is struggling at home—his mum hasn’t coped since his dad left, his brother bullies him, and he’s losing his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. He watches his fellow students drive around in flash cars, while his family just struggle to get by. And he lost his boyfriend to suicide. But on top of all that, he’s regularly kidnapped by slug-like aliens, who now want him to decide whether the Earth will end. Thanks to his brother telling everyone in school about the abductions, his fellow students call him Space Boy, and bully him mercilessly. Henry isn’t really sure whether the Earth is worth saving. Despite the pretty out there premise of the alien abductions, We Are the Ants is mostly a high school coming of age story. It’s pretty dark and brutal at times, more so than average. Henry is dealing with a lot of things, and has an understandably bleak outlook on life. His voice is really distinctive, veering from alienated distance to dark humour. The voice was really the first thing to grab me about the novel. Henry definitely serves up a whole heap of existential angst along the way, as he tries to negotiate his increasingly desperate life, and feelings of self-loathing. There were a few shocks in the story, as Henry punishes himself for his perceived failings with his late boyfriend, or is punished by others or by circumstance. When a new student, Diego Vega, befriends him, he’s really in no state to embark on a new relationship. There’s a lot going on in this novel, and Hutchinson does justice to the varied complex issues covered, particularly the family’s financial hardship and the various problems that arise from that. There’s really no let up for Henry. (Trigger warnings for bullying, sexual assault and attempted rape.) It’s a good book. But I was a little disappointed in the ending. It didn’t quite satisfy as a pay-off to all that angst and trauma. And not because it wasn’t a happy ending. It just had too much ambiguity for me, given the novel set-up. However, even given the ending (which I don’t want to spoiler), We Are the Ants is definitely worth a look.

Bought as a gift for my son's (15th) birthday, who says it's one of the best books he's ever read. He's a very able reader and had to reread it because he felt like he'd missed bits first time round, but through my enjoyed it both times. It's currently on loan to his English teacher, who has already ordered himself a copy and recommended it to others despite not having finished it yet. Some quite mature themes (and language) so be aware if this might be an issue for you.

I loved it, the plot, the characters, everything! It was a great story and it made me cry a lot

I just adore this book. Everything about it- the perfect balance between humour, sci-fi and heartbreaking reality. I've never laughed and cried within the few pages before. I'm literally trying to get everyone I know to read this because it means so much to me

'because we are the ants and we'll keep on marching' absolutely loved this book. it was an incredible reading of loss and how a teenager in particular deal with the death of a loved one particularly a violent death, it was really a great book.

This LGBT YA novel is very well written, but not the easiest of reads, dealing as it does with some hard-hitting issues (literally and figuratively). The mental-health aspects of the story are very well handled, leading to some rounded and memorable characters and situations. Kudos to the author for eschewing a fairytale happy ending and allowing things to play out more realistically.

book is beautifully written, and quality of the book itself is great ! cover is especially lovely and has a unique texture

Meinung: "We are the Ants" hat mich direkt angesprochen. Der Klappentext klingt so verrückt und abgedreht, ich musste das Buch einfach lesen. Bereut habe ich das keine Sekunde, denn Highlights liest man eben gerne! Mit dem Namen Shaun David Hutchinson konnte ich vorher nicht viel anfangen, obwohl „We are the Ants“ nicht sein Erstling ist – bisher ist er mir aber nie unter die Augen gekommen. Eine Schande! Wenn seine anderen Bücher nur halb so gut sind, wie dieses hier, dann Hut ab. Henry ist Hauptfigur in diesem Roman, in dem es der Autor ganz fantastisch geschafft hat, eine Geschichte zu schreiben, die mich oftmals unglaublich berühren konnte. Henrys Leben ist nämlich gehörig aus dem Ruder gelaufen und das scheint weiterhin anzuhalten. Sein Freund hat vor einigen Monaten Selbstmord begangen und Henry scheint immer noch in einer Starre zu stecken, aus die er nicht erwachen kann. Selbstzweifel, Selbsthass lassen ihn immer wieder die Frage stellen, warum Jesse freiwillig aus dem Leben getreten ist und er keine Anzeichen gesehen hat. Hat er Jesse zu wenig geliebt? Hat er Jesse mit seiner Liebe erdrückt? In dieser Spirale der Trauer ist es wenig hilfreich, dass seine geliebte Großmutter langsam aber sicher ihre Erinnerungen an Alzheimer verliert, dass seine Mutter nach der Trennung von seinem Vater wenig Selbstwertgefühl besitzt, sein nichtsnutziger Bruder plötzlich Vater wird und er in der Schule von seinen Mitschülern gequält wird. „Space Boy“, so nennen sie ihn und dieser Name kommt nicht von ungefähr! Henry wurde nämlich mit 13 Jahren das erste Mal von Aliens entführt und das geschieht seither in regelmäßigen Abständen. Als das an die Öffentlichkeit kommt, ist er das gefundene Opfer. In einer dieser "Alien-Nächte" bekommt er von den Aliens eröffnen, dass er entscheiden kann, ob die Welt in 144 Tagen untergehen soll oder ob er der Menschheit noch eine Chance gibt. Was soll er tun? Wie leicht wäre es, den roten Knopf zu drücken, um dem Leid endgültig zu entrinnen. Das klingt alles so deprimieren und das ist es auch, ich hatte aber trotzdem niemals das Gefühl, dass mich diese Traurigkeit, die die Geschichte ausstrahlt, selbst ergreift. Vielmehr hatte ich das Gefühl von Bewunderung für Henry, dass er all diese Ungerechtigkeit schon so lange aushält. Unzählige Male hatte ich das Bedürfnis diesen verdammten roten Knopf selber zu drücken, weil mich diese Gemeinheiten so wütend gemacht haben. Gleichzeit gab es so viele Momente im Buch, die einfach wahnsinnig schön sind und da muss ich dem Autor ein Kompliment machen. Das Buch ist vielschichtig und bedient diese „Schichten“ absolut gleichwertig. Henrys Oma bekommt genauso viel Wichtigkeit, wie die Momente mit seiner Mutter. Ebenso wird die Beziehung zu seinem Bruder nicht vernachlässigt. Jesses Selbstmord zieht sich zwar wie ein Leitfaden durch die gesamte Handlung, es passiert aber trotzdem so viel drum herum. Zudem ist das Buch einfach toll geschrieben und Herrn Hutchinson gelingt fabelhaft der Spagat zwischen humorvollen und traurig/emotionalen Augenblicken. „Depression isn't a war you win. It's a battle you fight every day. You never get to stop, never get to rest. It's one bloody fray after another.“ (S.328) Ich habe wirklich nichts an dem Buch auszusetzen und konnte jederzeit gebannt verfolgen, wie sich Henry in den 144 Tagen weiterentwickelt, und war natürlich gespannt darauf, wie das Ende ablaufen würde. Für mich war es einfach nur perfekt, so wie es ist. „We are the Ants“ ist für mich eben so ein Buch, das ich mit einem Gefühl zumache, das irgendwie anders ist – großartig! Fazit: „We are the Ants“ von Shaun David Hutchinson ist das erste Buch dieses Jahr, das mich vollends überzeugen konnte. Authentische Charaktere, viele Emotionen (schöne & traurige) und eine doch etwas skurrile Handlung machen dieses Buch zu einem Highlight. Lesen, ich bitte darum!

Il libro è arrivato sano e salvo alla mia abitazione, senza la presenza di graffi e/o strappi vari, oppure angoli sbeccati. Alle volte le spedizioni Amazon (non Amazon Prime) dipendono dalla fortuna (condizioni originali del libro, fragilità del volume, cura nel trasporto e nella spedizione, e via dicendo).

I bought this book as part of a 30 Days of Pride Book Review project. The following is that review: This is such a good book. Sincerely. A snippet from School Library Journal on the back cover said -- “Hints of Slaughterhouse-Five.” And I thought, comparing yourself to Vonnegut is setting a pretty high bar... but, yes, hints of Kurt Vonnegut, indeed. Of course, Hutchinson isn’t Vonnegut (who is?) but just like with my favorite Vonnegut novels, this book begs to be quoted, but has so many quotable lines that tie back into themselves that it becomes impossible for me to figure out where I want to start or stop quoting it, until finally I decide instead of reading you any of these passages, I should just make you read this book. On the surface this book is about some real concrete story point things. It is about a boy named Henry Denton who is abducted by aliens and given the absurd power to decide the fate of the world, while struggling to deal with his own family and relationship drama, with a doomsday clock quietly counting down in the background. But then it is also about a lot of other things. It is about grief. It is about being fifteen and weird. It is about hooking up with the wrong person because you can or because they are there or because you don’t think you deserve any better… It’s about being human and insignificant in the grand scheme of things and whether or not that should stop you from caring about living… One of my favorite Vonnegut quotes is, "Do you realize that all great literature is all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? Isn't it such a relief to have someone say that?" This book is about what a bummer it is to be a human being, how short, brutal, and absurd our lives are, and whether or not we should keep making the choice to live them anyway. I really enjoyed finding out whether or not Henry Denton would decide to spare humanity… almost as much as I enjoyed all the various Sci-fi theories he proposed as possible world ending phenomena for when the doomsday clock eventually ran out. I want you to read this book. And, some of you, I know, will never actually read this book... whether because it isn’t your taste or you’re too busy or you just don’t enjoy reading… but I want you to read it, anyway. Like, I know if you started reading this book, you would want to keep reading this book, and I don’t think you would regret reading it. It’s just that kind of book. It has my ringing endorsement, but let's put it on the project scales. First up: The Queer Counterculture Visibility Scale. The main character was white, male, and gay. I’m giving points here for: Class issues, a side character’s sexuality being more fluid than a binary Gay VS. Straight, and a very honest look at mental health. I also kind of like that the struggles that our main character was having in his life did not revolve around his sexuality. Things weren’t tense because he was gay, but because he was being abducted by aliens and no one believed it. I don’t know if it is weird or not to give it a half point just for not being another coming out story, which are great and necessary, but are really saturating the YA genre… but it’s my scale, and I made it up, and I can score it however I want. 3 out of 5 stars Secondly: The Genre Expectation Scale. This is a young adult novel, in that the main character is a fifteen year old boy, dealing with highschool, family, relationships and the pain of figuring out what kind of human being he is. But it easily surpasses any expectation I would have for the “Juvenile--fiction” Genre. It is well written and poignant without being pretentious. It is able to be dark without having to turn off the lights and nihilistic in a way that doesn’t actually reach hopelessness. It is a well crafted, well thought out, and well edited novel. 5 out of 5 stars (easily)

Great book. Arrived in great condition and even showed up early.