MICHAEL L. PRINTZ HONOR BOOK • Intense, complex, and brave, this groundbreaking coming-of-age stunner brilliantly weaves together everything from testicle-dissolving genetically modified corn to the struggles of recession-era, small-town America.
“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
“Nuanced, gross, funny, and poignant, it’s wildly original.”—The San Francisco Chronicle
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.
Andrew Smith is the award-winning author of several young adult novels, including the critically acclaimed
Winger and
The Marbury Lens. He is a native-born Californian who spent most of his formative years traveling the world. His university studies focused on Political Science, Journalism, and Literature. He has published numerous short stories and articles.
Grasshopper Jungle is his seventh novel. He lives in Southern California.
“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
“Nuanced, gross, funny, and poignant, it’s wildly original.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle
“I found myself saying over and over again, ‘Where in the heck is he going with this?’ all the while turning the pages as fast as I could. Mostly I kept thinking, This was a brave book to write.”
—Terry Brooks, author of the Shannara series “
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.”
—Jake Shears, Scissor Sisters “Original, weird, sexy, thought-provoking and guaranteed to stir controversy. One hell of a book.”
—Michael Grant, New York Times bestselling author of the Gone series “Andrew Smith is the bravest storyteller I know.
Grasshopper Jungle is the most intelligent and gripping book I’ve read in over a decade. It’s a masterpiece.”
—A. S. King, Printz Honor–winning author of Ask the Passengers and Please Ignore Vera Dietz “This book is nothing short of a brilliant, hilarious thrill-ride that is instantly infectious. The deft hand by which Smith explores teenage love and sexuality . . . is truly breathtaking. In writing a history of the end of the world, Smith may have just made history himself.”
—John Corey Whaley, Printz Award–winning author of Where Things Come Back “A bizarrely fascinating premise that Smith pulls off with panache. . . . Like an absurdist Middlesex. A-”
—Entertainment Weekly “
Grasshopper Jungle, in many ways, is a book about how there might be a manual for defeating monsters that have invaded town, but there’s not going to be an easy manual for everything else that weighs on the mind.”
—A.V. Club “You, too, will love Smith’s bold, bizarre, and beautiful novel.”
—The Boston Globe “No author writing for teens today can match Andrew Smith’s mastery of the grotesque, the authentic experiences of teenage boys or the way one seamlessly becomes a metaphor for the other.”
—BookPage
