We Are the Ants - by Shaun David Hutchinson (Paperback)

About the Book

After the suicide of his boyfriend, Henry deals with depression and family issues, all while wondering if he was really abducted and told he has 144 days to decide whether or not the world is worth saving.

Book Synopsis

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) From the "author to watch" (Kirkus Reviews) of The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley comes an "equal parts sarcastic and profound" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) novel about a teenage boy who must decide whether or not the world is worth saving.Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button. Only he isn't sure he wants to. After all, life hasn't been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer's. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend's suicide last year. Wiping the slate clean sounds like a pretty good choice to him. But Henry is a scientist first, and facing the question thoroughly and logically, he begins to look for pros and cons: in the bully who is his perpetual one-night stand, in the best friend who betrayed him, in the brilliant and mysterious boy who walked into the wrong class. Weighing the pain and the joy that surrounds him, Henry is left with the ultimate choice: push the button and save the planet and everyone on it...or let the world--and his pain--be destroyed forever.

Review Quotes

2016 Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year A 2017 ALA Top Ten Rainbow List Title "A beautiful, masterfully told story by someone who is at the top of his craft." -Lambda Literary "Unfailingly dramatic and crackling with characters who become real upon the page." -Booklist, starred review "Bitterly funny, with a ray of hope amid bleakness." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Hints of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five... Highly recommended." -School Library Journal, starred review "Hutchinson has crafted an unflinching portrait of the pain and confusion of young love and loss." -Publishers Weekly, starred review "Wonderfully written... bracingly smart and unusual." -Shelf Awareness, starred review