BOOK REVIEW: WE ARE THE ANTS

Dystopian - Finding yourself - Love - Bullying - Life

Author: Shawn David Hutchinson

Genre: YA Dystopian, YA Contemporary

Page Count: 451 pages

Trigger Warnings: r@pe, s**cide, homophobia, abusive parents/family, physical and emotional violence

“We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live.

The universe may forget us, but it doesn't matter. Because we are the ants, and we'll keep marching on.”

“I saw the world from the stars' point of view, and it looked unbearably lonely.”

Henry Denton's life is one of a train constantly derailing off its tracks, a tug in the heart with every new adversity -- his mother constantly has a cigarette between her fingers as she tries to keep the shambling family together, his older brother dropping out to raise a baby, with the death of his boyfriend, Jesse, of whom he loved to no limits, Henry is forced to chose how he must survive in this world. With the alien abductions happening since he was thirteen years old, Henry soon turned into vice at his schools, constantly smothered to the ground as if a small bug of annoyance -- he only believes in the ignorance of such creatures, to give him the duty in deciding the end of the world, and though it is seen unfit to chose him for such a task, Henry is bestowed upon this heavy-weight decision, like bars of metal seeping through your tongue. Now, he only knows that he has one hundred and forty-four days to make such a heavy-weight decision, and must embark to the finding in the meaning of life, whether this life is worth saving. For Henry, all odds seem to be against such meaning -- until he meets Diego Vega, a boulder who pushes him out of his cornucopia in hatred, who is one that lets Henry finally live. Before Henry can save the world, he must figure out how to save himself -- there's no cure for such that.

This book ponders very weighted aspects, as that of not seen as drugs, but rather as coping mechanisms, of love, of love when questioned, of the lingering in a memory that tinges your skin and weaves through your flesh as if a binding that is now left in remains. It is seen that such misery, the misery in which all of one can face is pushed into the soul of Henry Denton, and through the violence at home, through school, Henry's life only revolves around an ambiance of pain. This book is written with the hands telling of how one with the weakest condition can have the toughest exterior, and those with the toughest exterior can, must still learn their own life, not have others read it out for them.

The cacophony of such characters not justified the book, but rather enriched the story around itself -- with the extreme of the characters seen raw, unbearably as strong as a magnet, all such people seem to have an essence of depth to them. With Henry, it begins with the suicide of his boyfriend Jesse -- an unbearable memory that haunts him from time and time again -- and with the metal taste of a losing memory stinging his tongue, he faces more losses than ever before, nor serving to any limit in the defines of Diego, nor his long lost friend, Audrey. It is seen that he is suffering, but rather than staying as that, he talks to Diego, and opens up to many more in seek of help -- Henry Denton is of a persona stuck in the wrong universe. Though Henry Denton proves to be of diamonds scattered across a crystal plate, Diego and Audrey were somewhat in the lacking. While Audrey seemed to be more inhuman than ever, it takes us a while to notice later in the book that even she suffered from the loss of her best friend, Jesse. Her only fault would be how she treated Henry, with her constant pushing and complaining about what he found uncomfortable -- she was one to keep pushing Henry without a viable understanding of what she was making him do would be confining and rather intolerable for him. Despite this, she would prove to have a striking personality, one of those who live inside a lion, and is found to have the best of intentions, rather than just have them presented the wrong way. Diego, on the other hand -- while he was to be found with incessant prying, pushing Henry into pitfalls he wasn't ready for, Diego's character came to be of no surprise. Diego proved to be as predictable as that of a high-school teen drama, one with plastic characters that complete inconceivable things. With Diego, it was more of a guessing game in terms of when he's going to perform his next move -- and through everything that happened with Diego and Henry, it seemed as if the author used Diego to embellish in which case Henry got over Jesse. Rather, however, it seemed to make Jesse seem as if this hypothetical figure -- rather than strengthening Diego's character, his use was for the sole purpose of ridding Jesse from Henry's mind.

Though rather accompanied by weaker characters, the plot seemed to make up for what the characters lacked. Though the novel follows a young teenager, Henry Denton, through the course of an alien invasion and the days after -- the novel itself is not about the invasion, but rather Henry's pursuit to find the reasoning in why he shouldn't end the world, or in other terms, why the world is worth keeping. In 'We Are The Ants' Hutchinson begins to seek out the purpose of this world, and rather, our purpose in it. Leaving Henry one hundred and forty-four days to figure out a puzzling mystery that has been in search of in the course of centuries. Hutchinson follows us into the depths of a young boy's mind, of a young boy's life. Through all the tragedy Henry Denton has faced, with the loss of his boyfriend and the nonbearing of his family's lack of caring, there is no reason rather present for Henry to continue living in this world. Through the course of the next weeks, turning into tiresome months, Henry establishes his search, and in compliance with Audrey and Diego, he learns that to live freely in this present, he must let go of the past -- of Jesse. This book takes us through the rigorous journey in finding purpose in the most meticulous sense, tugging us with arbitrary lines across our hearts, thrusting us deeper into the unforgiving souls of the characters. It is a silver knife that drags across your heart, but rather than a stinge, you feel an enterprise of 'sweet' -- Shawn David Hutchinson answers, in the most meaningful way possible, what it means to live on this Earth, what it means to live.

Through the course of a novel, Shawn David Hutchinson proves to present an enterprised discovery of a lifetime.

Characters: 3/5

Plot: 5/5

Pacing: 5/5

Overall: 13/15

Recommended for fans of 'More Happy Than Not', and 'Sadie'.