Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
★ ★ ★ ★ 

Grasshopper Jungle is a book that you’ll only survive if you’re extremely open-minded. Even then, it’s not quite a guarantee that you’ll enjoy it.

Austin is the main character and the self-appointed person in charge of keeping track of history in Ealing, Iowa. Austin has a wonderful girlfriend named Shann and an amazing best friend named Robby. Robby and Austin spend most of their days skating around Grasshopper Jungle and dealing with their sexuality. Robby is gay and Austin has absolutely no idea what he is. Except horny. Austin is horny very often. One day, Austin and Robby get beat up by the usual group of homophobes and accidentally begin the end of the world. And this is how the world ends…not with a bang but with genetically modified insects resembling a cross between grasshoppers and praying mantis. The bugs have bulletproof exoskeletons and are roughly 8 feet tall (before they start molting and growing), Like normal insects though, they’re only interested in two things….eating and procreating.

I actually really enjoyed this book. I didn’t take it seriously though so the multiple conversations about semen and naming one’s balls didn’t really faze me. If I tried to look at the book as the piece of literature it kept being passed off to me as, I could see the attempted metaphors between the bugs and teenage boys going through puberty. The book did have moments of being really clever. For some reason though, the cleverness had to be drowned in commentary about erections. It was also an interesting tool to jump from the modern parts to connect them to brief historical facts that connected different characters related to Austin or characters that lived in his periphery. It was also really interesting to watch the outbreak happen, I was just confused that Andrew Smith chose to be bold and take chances with all of Grasshopper Jungle except for the ending.