Henry knows that his mom is struggling to keep the family together, and coping by chain-smoking cigarettes. He knows that his older brother is a college dropout with a pregnant girlfriend. He knows that he is slowly losing his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. And he knows that his boyfriend committed suicide last year.
What Henry doesn’t know is why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.
But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.
The question is whether Henry thinks the world is worth saving. That is, until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that. @goodreads
MY REVIEW:
5 STARS
This book gave me so many feels, I'm not even sure where to start.....
You can read so much just from the blurb of the book, but I wasn't expecting what I read, I don't even know what I was expecting - surely not this amazing book.
Henry is bullied at school, he's been bullied all of his life but especially after his brother told everyone that he was abducted by aliens. Yes, Henry has been or thinks he has been abducted by aliens. We do get to read about them throughout the book until they just disappear....
"You were totally abducted, weren't you?" Marcus fired off a high-pitched cackle that made me fantasize about punching him so hard in the balls that the trauma traveled back through time and rendered his ancestors sterile, thus wiping Marcus McCoy from history. "What'd they do to you? Anal probe? That's it, isn't it?"
Henry's boyfriend, Jesse, killed himself so Henry is still trying to get over that and put up with the bullying, the aliens, etc and so on.
Henry is called Space Boy by everyone at school. I was sickened by the way Henry was bullied at school and at home by his brother Charlie.
"Dad didn't abandon us," he said. "He abandoned you."
I struggled to breathe, to look Charlie in the eyes and call him a liar. Tell him he was the worst fucking brother in the universe. That I would have been better off an only child. But I didn't say any of those things. I didn't say anything at all.
"He was so ashamed of what a pathetic loser you were that he couldn't stand being around you. Everyone you care about either runs away or kills themselves, and you think I'm a fuckup."
I shoved Charlie out of my room and slammed the door. I leaned against it, slid to the floor, and put my head in my hands. I wasn't crying because of what Charlie said; I was crying because, deep down, I knew he was right.
So many of the things said and done to Henry just broke my heart. But even though Henry had some really bad days, I mean really bad days with these people, he kept on going. Yeah he wanted to end it a few times, who the hell wouldn't, but he didn't. I can tell you right now I wanted to throw some of these people off a cliff.
So Henry has been hooking up with this douche Marcus on the side. And on the side I mean that Marcus bullies him at school and acts like he's shit and has other kids do the same, while being his hidden boy toy. Henry doesn't think he deserves better.
Things slowly start to look up when Diego comes to the school and he's a really cool kid. Henry also becomes friends again with Audrey (they had a falling out after Jesse) and she is sooooo super sweet and cool and there is one thing she does in the book that made me have the biggest joker smile ever! One of those revenge is sweet moments :-)
At some point even ole Charlie comes around and turns out he starts being a nice enough brother. Charlie has some things going on and I won't mention those but I think they made him a better person, well I know they did.
They had to finally settle some things with Henry's Nana but it all worked out and that brought a tear to my eye.
Things did work out in the end for most people and I loved it. I loved this book so much. Read it!
The universe may forget us, but it doesn't matter. Because we are the ants, and we'll keep marching on.
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1522802780
AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:
http://www.amazon.com/Are-Ants-Shaun-David-Hutchinson/dp/148144963X?ie=UTF8&keywords=we%20are%20the%20ants&qid=1460137156&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
Yeeeeeey!!!! I'm so glad that you liked this one. I was surprised at just how good it is. I wasn't expecting that. Lovely review!
ReplyDeleteOMG! It was amazing! I'm so glad you loved it too :-) ♥
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