Grasshopper Jungle

Smith, Andrew. Grasshopper Jungle. 2014. 388p. ISBN 978-0-525-42603-5. FIC SMI on the library shelves.

Austin Szerba is your typical male teenager. Obsessed with sex, confused as to his sexual orientation, in love both with his best friend male Robby and his girlfriend Shann, Austin lives in a small town in Iowa, in the middle of nowhere, where nothing of importance ever takes place.

Austin is a historian, and he likes to write down the events of the day for posterity, often concluding with “and this was our day. You know what I mean.” When he and Robby are beaten by four local high schoolers in Grasshopper Jungle, behind the dying mall, it sets up a chain reaction that leads to the ultimate end of the world. Austin is also Polish, and throughout the novel he inserts the tales of his family with the tales of the people who inhabit his town and of those he works with.

Always horny, Austin must figure out his feelings for both Robby and Shann. And when a giant preying mantis emerges from the body of a homeless man in front of them as they stand next to a gay bar, Austin knows that his life is about to change forever.

A tale of horniness, sex, and the very human feelings of love, confusion, and loneliness, this book will delight males who appreciate the humor of naming one’s testicles with the added apocalyptic element of the ending of the world.

Fans of this book will appreciate another of Andrew Smith’s books, Winger; Jesse Andrews’ Me, Earl and the Dying Girl; Antony John’s Busted.