We are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

“We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live. The universe may forget us, but it doesn't matter. Because we are the ants, and we'll keep marching on.”

Summary:

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:

Shaun David Hutchinson brings together an emotional, coming of age and beautiful narrative within a novel for many bookworms out there in the world to read. This would be my first time reading a novel written by Shaun David Hutchinson, and let me just tell you. He did not disappoint me one bit. 'We are the Ants', brings to the reader a compelling narrative and characters, which definitely peaked my interest straight away and I just fell in love with it. This novel was at a consistent and fantastically paced read, especially for a novel that is like 400+ pages or so. Each character presented within, 'We are the Ants', each displayed a sense of raw and real emotion. They were presented each as broken in their own way, yet would each cope with the reality of the world around them in different ways, and from the start to end of the novel you could just see the character development and growth they went through within the novel. The protagonist, Henry Denton, will have you in the feels constantly throughout the novel as he is constantly deciding if he should press the button or not, just because of the life he is living and you just want to dive into the novel and give a gigantic hug to him. As you read the plot, Shaun David Hutchinson just hits you straight in the face with real words and so much truth, as though every thought he was thinking about the world was placed straight onto paper, and I literally loved that so much. He demonstrated that the real world is not all sunshine and butterflies, and you can see that through his choice of words and sentencing.....well that is what I saw and thought at least ahaha. 

Overall, the novel did not disappoint me and is a brilliant novel for any contemporary readers out there. Ranging from the characters to the plot, it peaked my interest right away and I could not place the book down I just continuously kept turning the page until I reached the end of the last chapter. Without a doubt, it continued to be one of the greatest, most heartwarming books I have ever read and constantly delivers touching message but at the same time, balances the novel with the same amount of humour.

Rating:  Stars

Some triggers warnings that readers might want to know: Suicide, self harm (mention), nihilism, severe bullying & physical assault, attempted rape