Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Grasshopper Jungle author Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow.
Genre:
Young Adult, Contemporary
To be honest, its hard to put Andrew’s books in a genre. They just kind of stand on their own
Pages:
304
Part of a Series?:
Standalone Novel
Release Date:
March 3rd, 2015
You Can Find the Book At:
Check your local bookstore!
GoodReads
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository
Author Website
GoodReads Summary:
Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Grasshopper Jungle author Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow.
My Review:
I know that I sit here and talk about Andrew Smith all the time. I know that quite a few of you have come to me, having read his books because I tend to shove them down your throats. Mostly.
But there is a good reason for it. Andrew’s most recent novel, The Alex Crow, just further proves that me pushing him towards you is for your own good. Every book he writes is written so well and captures me from first word to last.
What Andrew does in his books that keeps me hooked every single time is write a book that is so utterly unique that you spend so much of your time reading, thinking…how your mind is being completely blown. But he also writes such real human stories as well. His characters may seem a little weird, a little off, maybe a bit too blunt but they’re so incredibly real.
The Alex Crow is about Ariel, a kid taken from his war ridden Middle East country and adopted into an American family. He is trying to adapt to this different life, while still trying to recover from the things he experienced back him. He has a new brother and is sent to the weirdest summer camp ever, surrounded by some of the weirdest and yet totally normal boys ever. Intertwining with his story both in the present and the past is a journal of a doctor on an exploration decades ago and the story of a strange man on the road with one destination and goal in mind. In true Andrew Smith fashion, you’re not quite sure what is going on or how these all connect until they do and it’s just amazing.
The writing is incredible and the story is amazing as well. Somehow Andrew manages to bring three seemingly different and unrelated stories into one. He does something different and unique and it makes for an incredible read. Every page is unexpected. I laugh and I get caught up in my emotions and I get scared and sad and confused and it’s all wonderful from beginning to end. Not everyone can pull off this kind of book but Andrew does it again and again. This is another book by him that you simply cannot miss.
Rating:
5 out of 5 Stars
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