Heather's books

Sarah's Key
Room
Rainwater
The Help
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Lightning Thief
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Notebook
Eat, Pray, Love
The Time Traveler's Wife
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone


Heather's favorite books »

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

A Very Very Unique book...

Grasshopper Jungle
The Grasshopper Jungle

By: Andrew Smith

Genre: YA LGBTQ/Sci-Fi

Pages: 368

Published: 2014

Read: May

2.5 out of 5


WOW! This is probably the strangest book I have ever read. It is a coming-of-age story, but with a sci-fi twist. The writing style and plot were very unique and I definitely give Smith credit for that. I felt this was a novel that intertangles Looking for Alaska by John Green and the movie Tremors (1990). I had two major issues with the book - Smith would repeat sentences a lot. This was definitely part of his writing style, but I found it very annoying and not sure what it added to the story. My  other dilemma is as a Teen Librarian, I am not sure how to market this book. Typically, boys enjoy sci-fi but not relationship/homosexual/coming-of-age novels and the girls are just the opposite. Because of the teen characters and crossing of genres, I don't know if adults would enjoy it either. After talking with a co-worker, we came to the conclusion that besides teen boys questioning their own sexuality that the best readers may be adult males who are still kids themselves and possibly reluctant readers. 

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