Book Reviews

Grasshopper Jungle (2014)

Grasshopper Jungle – Andrew Smith (2014)

Rating: 5/5

Genre: Really, Really weird shit

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SWEARING

Okay, so this book starts off like your normal, everyday YA novel; we are introduced to Austin Szerba, a horny 16 year old boy and we also meet Robby, Austin’s gay best friend.

Then Austin and Robby do a thing which leads to another thing happening and then some major shit going down. It’s a really good book you should read it.

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, wars, monsters, internal combustion engines,love, cigarettes, joy, bomb shelters, pizza, and cruelty. 

This novel is a teen boy’s wet dream written by an amazing author who must be taking drugs; I often found myself saying “what the fucking, fuck???”  But I kept going because it was bloody good!

Austin (the main character) is very interesting and funny; he talks about his family history a lot throughout the book which is really cool (his family history is so weird, I mean seriously what even??).

Robby was one of my favorite characters. Robby is openly gay and I find that Austin is often questioning his sexuality when he is around Robby (it’s really interesting to read about this side of Austin). You don’t find out much about Robby’s character throughout the novel but ,he is still really cool.

I had a bit of trouble getting to know most of the characters as Austin didn’t really explain much about their backgrounds.

Shann, Austin’s girlfriend suffered a bit from Austin’s sexuality complication throughout the book but, I felt like she should have gotten over it because she and Austin were so “in love” (it did not seem like that btw). All in all I didn’t really like Shann she just pissed me off (there was also the thing how every time Austin thought of her he wanted to have sex with someone).

Honestly, just read the first chapter or so and decide if you like it or not. You’ll either love it or hate it.

This book deals with sexuality and sex, it also contain A LOT of swearing. Austin also talks about being horny a lot so if that makes you uncomfortable perhaps avoid reading this book for a while (while we’re on the topic of Austin’s horniness, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, I found it quite funny).

WARNING: THIS NOVEL DOES CONTAIN MENTIONS OF SEX, SOME REALLY WEIRD AS HELL THINGS, SEX, SWEARING AND SMOKING

WARNING: THIS NOVEL IS SUITALE FOR A MATURE 15/16 YEAR OLD.