Review: Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

So I’ve been super busy lately with college stuff, but I wanted to get this review up. I will warn you now that it is a first draft, but I’ve attempted to make it a bit less awkward with some gifs. We’ll see.

If you’ve ever been to the Grand Canyon, you know that no description could do it justice. If you’ve ever been to the Grand Canyon, you also know that the trip there is a bit arduous. Pretty scenery, though.

I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, so I actually wouldn’t know. But I assume the final stop, the getting out of the car and taking in the overwhelming magnificence of your destination, is a bit like finishing this book. You just have to take a moment to stand (or sit) there and say, “Damn.”

Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King was a phenomenal book. I’ve already read another of King’s novels, Ask the Passengers, which has earned a place on my “absolute-best-books-ever” shelf, and so I was a little nervous that this one wouldn’t live up to its predecessor. While it hasn’t joined its companion on that shelf, it is  outstanding in its own right.

Lucky Linderman was a beautiful protagonist. 

One of the most believable characters of any YA book I’ve read in a while. Yes, he struggles with bullies, and with depression, and with a crappy family life, but he’s still a normal teenager. Actually, scratch that, Lucky is not a normal teenager. In fact, Lucky proves that there is no such thing as a normal teenager. It’s impossible not to fall in love with Lucky and root for him as the book progresses. The real beauty of the character, however, is how much empathy he inspires. King put it beautifully in an interview quoted at the end of the book, where she says, “[Lucky] is a very universal boy. He is all of us.”

While the primary conflict of the novel is Lucky’s struggle to escape the torments of bully Nader MacMillian (which he does by staging rescue attempts for his POW/MIA grandfather in the Vietnam jungle, more on that later), King takes on all sorts of other bullies. She touches on issues of mysoginism, child abuse, extramarital affairs, subtle psychological abuse, and - the biggest issue of all - ignorance. This, in simpler terms, is a book for the underdog. And King does it beautifully - no mushy-gushy, bs, look-at-how-much-this-person’s-life-sucks-so-you-should-feel-sympathy-for-them messages here. Instead, King creates characters - and problems - so realistic that anyone reading the book will find themselves empathizing with at least one character.

I can’t say too much about the Vietnam/magical realism part of the book without spoiling it, but I will say this: it works. It really really works. A.S. King is a master of magical realism, and it intertwines so beautifully with the plot. It’s such a unique twist that sets both King and her books apart from the rest of the contemporary genre, and it’s gorgeous.

I just really love this part of the book, okay? Gah. It just makes me so happy to read a book where the author really gets it.

That being said, I do have to address the few parts of the book I didn’t really like as much, as much as it pains me to do so.

Actually, there’s really only one thing. Several times while I was reading this book, I would sit down and be a few pages into my reading when I realized - nothing was really happening. I mean, stuff was definitely happening, but not really very big stuff, if you know what I mean. It just moved kind of slowly, and although the climax was beautiful and made me smile, it happened in about the span of a page and a half.

That’s it, though, for complaints on this one. It’s been about a week since I finished it, and even just thinking about this book still makes me ridiculously happy. This is what I mean about the Grand Canyon thing. It was rough going in a few spots, but the destination left me in awe. The ending was so perfect, just-

It was an absolutely fantastic read. Read it. Read it now.

So thanks for sticking with me through that. I'm going to try to post a tag thing soon, but we'll see.