Although everyone says you should never judge a book by it’s cover, that’s exactly how I chose this book. The cover art is beautiful, the book is beautiful, I think my approach of choosing Everybody Sees the Ants was a job well done.
A.S. King is truly royal in my eyes, she writes wonderful books that really do help out teens in different situations in a quirky way. In Everybody Sees the Ants she takes a very serious topic and puts a quirky twist on what could have been just another generic story about bullies and a family in peril.
Overview:
Lucky Linderman has not only been blessed with his name, but he also has been blessed with a dad who is more involved with Food Network than his family (aka the Turtle) and a mom who need’s to swim laps to keep her sane (aka the squid). He has also been lucky enough to get the attention of Nader, the bully of this story.
“If you were going to commit suicide, what method would you choose?”
The once harmless question is now a returning nightmare for Lucky, because now his parents and the school district are on his case and he has to go on a trip with his mom to Arizona. Staying three weeks with his pill popping Aunt and his mysterious Uncle was not really in Lucky’s summer plans. But that’s okay because Ginny, the beautiful and mysterious girl from church is here to save the day! Speaking of saving the day, Lucky spends his nights dreaming about saving his Grandfather from the war in Vietnam, where he has been trapped since Lucky was just a kid. Since his grandma has passed, it has been his life goal to get his grandfather out.
That is just the beginning of what happens in this amazing book. I know it sounds very odd, and trust me it is. But that is why it is so great, once you see that Lucky isn’t being 100 percent truthful, you can really start to appreciate the beauty of this book. There were times where I wanted to stop reading because it was just plain confusing and weird, and there were times where the only thing I could do to stop crying was to read on. It will be a hit or miss though if you do decide to read this book, since not everybody can truly read outside the lines.
Rating: 9/10