Staff Pick
There isn't anything like Grasshopper Jungle in young adult fiction. First of all, it's insane. Giant, six-foot-tall praying mantis-looking bugs are bursting out of the stomachs of certain residents in a decaying Midwest town — and all they want to do is eat and mate. They're taking over Ealing, Iowa, and it's raunchy and hilarious. But while all this mayhem is going on, the heart of the book is a kid caught in a love triangle with his girlfriend and best friend, attempting to understand his sexual identity. (Yeah... didn't see that comin', huh?) I don't typically throw around the word "brilliant," but here, I would. Recommended By Jordan S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A 2015 Michael L. Printz Honor Book
Winner of the 2014 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction
"Raunchy, bizarre, smart and compelling." — Rolling Stone
"Grasshopper Jungle is simultaneously creepy and hilarious. Reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut’s in Slaughterhouse Five, in the best sense." — New York Times Book Review
In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of horny, hungry, six-foot-tall praying mantises that only want to do two things.
This is the truth. This is history.
It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it.
You know what I mean.
Funny, intense, complex, and brave, Grasshopper Jungle brilliantly weaves together everything from testicle-dissolving genetically modified corn to the struggles of recession-era, small-town America in this groundbreaking coming-of-age stunner.
Review
"The end of the world comes with neither a bang nor a whimper but with a dark chuckle and the ominous click-click of giant insect mandibles in this irreverent, strangely tender new novel by Andrew Smith. This but hints at the intricately structured, profound, profanity-laced narrative between these radioactive-green covers." The Washington Post
Review
"Grasshopper Jungle plays like a classic rock album, a killing machine of a book built for the masses that also dives effortlessly into more challenging, deeper regions of emotion. Above all else, when it’s done you want to play it all over again. It’s sexy, gory, hilarious, and refreshingly amoral. I wish I’d had this book when I was fifteen. It almost makes me sad that it took twenty years to finally find what I’d been looking for." Jake Shears, lead singer of Scissor Sisters
Review
"If you appreciate kooky humor, sentences that bite, and a nuanced understanding of human beings' complicated natures and inexplicable actions, then you, too, will love Smith’s bold, bizarre, and beautiful novel." The Boston Globe
Review
"This raunchy, bizarre, smart and compelling sci-fi novel defies description – it’s best to go into it with an open mind and allow yourself to be first drawn in, then blown away." Rolling Stone
Review
"[Grasshopper Jungle] reads more like an absurdist Middlesex… and is all the better for it. A-" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Nuanced, gross, funny and poignant, it’s wildly original." The San Francisco Chronicle
About the Author
Andrew Smith lives in the mountains above Los Angeles on a ranch where he and his family keep horses. In addition to writing, he teaches high-school advance placement classes and coaches rugby. This is his first novel.