Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

I haven't finished this yet.

It just released yesterday, under my radar, and I'm deep into it. What it's got is two hormonal 16 year old boys, an empty Iowa town after the local factory picks up and leaves, and end-of-the-world devastation brought about by giant insects and genetically modified food. Here's how it opens:
I read somewhere that human beings are genetically predisposed to record history.
We believe it will prevent us from doing stupid things in the future.
But even though we dutifully archived elaborate records of everything we've ever done, we also managed to keep on doing dumber and dumber shit.
This is my history.
There are things in here: babies with two heads, insects as big as refrigerators, God, the devil, limbless warriors, rocket ships, sex, diving bells, theft, war, monsters, internal combustion engines, love, cigarettes, joy, bomb shelters, pizza, and cruelty.
Just like it's always been.
I'll be back with a full report when I'm done because I haven't had this much fun with an out-there premise since Tim, the Defender of Earth, and that had a Yoda-like Kraken, a T-Rex and a nanoswarm leveling London like something out of a 60s monster movie.

So my apologies for being late here, but I really need to get back to it. Knock me down a grade or two if you must, but I gotta find out what's on the minds of two hungry, horny six-foot praying mantises.

1 comment :

Ms. Yingling said...

Well. That's enough right there to make me pick it up. Sometimes a short hook is all you need!