We Are the Ants

Starred review from December 14, 2015
Henry Denton's life is in tattersâhe was abandoned by his father; his boyfriend, Jesse, hanged himself; and he is regularly abducted by aliens who have put Earth's very fate in his hands. The 16-year-old, nicknamed "Space Boy" by his tormentors, is self-destructing until he finds a friend in new kid Diego and an ally in Jesse's former pal Audrey. In a style reminiscent of Slaughterhouse-Five, Hutchinson (The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley) intersperses Henry's experience aboard the "slugger" spaceship with his trials on Earth, where he's "a punch line at school, a ghost at home." The extraterrestrial scenes are less the makings of a SF novel than a metaphor for Henry's isolation and alienation from his family and peers, including a gang of bullies who brutally assault him in a shower and then publicly shame him. Hutchinson has crafted an unflinching portrait of the pain and confusion of young love and loss, thoughtfully exploring topics like dementia, abuse, sexuality, and suicide as they entwine with the messy work of growing up. Ages 14âup. Agent: Amy Boggs, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Henry has been tasked by aliens to determine if humans deserve to live, but Henry is a teenager who is trying to deal with the suicide of his last boyfriend, the passive-aggressive abuse of his current romance, and a budding relationship with a new classmate. The rest of his life is falling apart as well, so he's doubtful that humans deserve any future. Narrator Gibson Frazier's youthful projection captures this first-person story well. He delivers tonal shifts that reflect Henry's emotions as the story progresses and produces realistic voices for the other characters. He also captures Henry's wry humor as he contemplates what it means to control the fate of the world. L.E. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine