Exile from Eden

Starred review from July 1, 2019
Smith follows his Printz Honor book Grasshopper Jungle with this rewarding novel that takes place 16 years later, when Arek Szerba, 16, goes in search of his missing fathers, Austin and Robby. Arek, along with Robby’s 15-year-old sister, Amelia (“Mel”) Sing Brees, has lived his whole life in “the hole,” an extensive underground bunker where they are safe from the nine-foot-tall Unstoppable Soldiers roaming above. The mutant mantises have eaten most of humankind, so when Austin and Robby fail to return from one of their habitual forays outside, Arek takes to the road to find them, secretly accompanied by Mel. Episodes of Arek’s earlier years in the hole are interwoven with the pair’s journey across the U.S. and the travelogue of 12-year-old Breakfast and his silent companion, Olive. Philosophical passages and reflections on the paintings of Max Beckmann mix with Arek’s longings for Mel and concerns about masturbation and the threat of circumcision by his hyper-religious grandmother. The combination of the base and off-the-wall with the deeply thoughtful gives this singular offering the air of a classic bildungsroman with a modern twist. Ages 14–up.

July 15, 2019
A grotesque, post-apocalyptic exploration of story, reality, and adolescent boyhood. Sixteen years after the end of Grasshopper Jungle (2014), when the Midwest was decimated by an apocalypse of 10-foot praying mantises, a handful of survivors are living in an underground bunker in Iowa. Sixteen-year-old Arek, born in the bunker, is increasingly feeling stifled, particularly by his grandmother, the "SPEAKER OF LAWS in the hole," and his mother, whose "sadness and anger became a stormy ocean inside the hole, drowning me." He's in love with and lusts after his only peer, biracial (Chinese/white) Amelie Sing Brees. When his fathers, Austin and Robby, venture aboveground and don't return, Arek is determined to seize the moment to explore the wider world and discover what has happened. Arek's first-person narrative is an intentionally crafted meditation on art, truth, reality, reproduction (both abstract and biological), and meaning-making. The only brown character falls into disturbingly racist tropes: a 12-year-old boy named Breakfast who is "completely wild," constantly "scratch[ing] his balls," obsessed with money, hates wearing clothes, and has "wild dreadlocks." Breakfast's companion is a chimpanzee named Olive, whom Breakfast is convinced is just a very hairy human girl who never talks. Smith's (The Size of the Truth, 2019, etc.) trademark portrayal of women characters, which at its most generous can be described as a lack of attention, continues here. "I am my father's son," the protagonist notes early on; this couldn't be truer--for better and, quite arguably, for worse. (Science fiction. 14-18)

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July 19, 2019

Gr 10 Up-Smith outweirds himself with this postapocalyptic sequel to Grasshopper Jungle. Sixteen years after the Unstoppable Soldiers infested the United States, Austin and Shann's biological son, Arek, is now a teenager. Raised by two dads (who are married), a mom, and a grandma, Arek's life in their underground refuge, Eden, is uniquely curated. Yet Arek longs to follow his many questions outside the "hole" for answers. When his fathers set off to find someone named Breakfast, Arek trails behind them. Mel, his teenage aunt-in-law and love interest, tags along. Chapters rotate between Arek's first-person and Breakfast's third-person narration, as the characters eventually meet. More dangers than just the Unstoppable Soldiers await them out in the open. Will they survive? Smith stays true to the bizarre spirit of the first book while focusing on entirely new characters with equally strong voices. Echoing Austin's preoccupation with history in Grasshopper Jungle, Arek peddles in stories in a quest toward truth: "All stories are true the moment they are told." Naked and wild, 12-year-old Breakfast is the uninhibited new society's poster child. The small cast results in richly drawn, characterlike settings. Unfortunately, female characters remain poorly developed. For fans of the queerness of its predecessor, the pervasiveness of heteronormativity-even in an uninhibited society-may leave a disappointing taste. Nonetheless, Smith's meditation on sexuality and identity is an effective reach for meaning and belonging in an empty, dystopian United States. VERDICT Memorable, odd, and invigorating. A first purchase for teen collections.-Alec Chunn, Eugene Public Library, OR

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* In this sequel to the Printz Honor Book Grasshopper Jungle (2014), 16-year-old Arek is the son of the previous title's protagonists, Austin and Robby, and he's spent his whole life underground in Iowa with his two dads, mother, and grandmother, safe from the 6-foot-tall predatory praying mantises that have wiped out most of the human population. Arek and his family share the hole with his best friend, 15-year-old Mel, and her parents. As the creatures seem to be dying off, Austin and Robby set off in a small plane to seek out other human survivors, while Arek and Mel set out on their own RV road trip. Meanwhile, alternating chapters follow 12-year-old wild boy Breakfast and his chimpanzee friend, Olive, who eventually cross paths with Arek and Mel. Amid action-packed sequences of close calls with survivalists and other monsters, as well as a sweet and completely believable, hormone-driven romance between Arek and Mel, it's the smaller details that will charm readers: Arek's fascination with the paintings of Max Beckmann and the teens' efforts to explain the remnants of preapocalyptic life that they encounter on their journey. Smith's latest is a marvel?endlessly inventive, witty stand-alone postapocalyptic fiction that delivers a happy ending and will inspire deep discussions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)