Grasshopper Jungle

Grasshopper Jungle is, among other things, a teenage coming of age story. Andrew Smith places a sex-obsessed teenage boy in the heart of a serious, world-ending catastrophe. Austin is a typical high school kid, obsessing about girls, questioning his identity, and trying to come to terms with the messed up world he finds himself in. On the journey with him is his best friend Robby. While they do end up in the normal teenage mess, Smith exacerbates things by giving the two friends the fate of having – albeit accidentally – brought about the end of the world.

Hideously large praying mantises have infested the planet. These giant insects behave the way normal praying mantises do—eating nearly everything in sight while breeding incessantly. They are many times larger than they should be, thus, the devastation they wreak is nothing short of cataclysmic. One writer describes them as having “exoskeletons as tough as the exterior hull of an aircraft carrier and razor sharp barbs on their arms.” Invulnerable to modern day weapons, they are bred with the singular mission of laying waste to humanity.

Smith has a knack for juxtaposing internal and external conflict and he does a phenomenal job of it in Grasshopper Jungle. On the one hand, Austin and Robby are battling the insect infestation that has ravaged the planet. On the other, the boys are forced to deal with internal issues brewing in both their families and the community. Consider Smith’s choice of setting. The boys live in the fictional town of Ealing, Iowa, a town inundated with violence and the vulgarities of Midwestern life. In addition to their mothers’ drug addiction, Austin and Robby must must deal with constant bullying on account of Robby’s sexual orientation, the eye sore of foreclosed and abandoned houses, and Austin’s brother, who has returned home from Afghanistan with severe injuries. All while contending with ravenous insects who are hell bent on consuming the earth and breeding humanity out of extinction.



While the majority of YA novels tend to stick to plots that are surreal and fantastical, Smith infuses his story with a bit of cold, hard truth. That the world, at its core, is not exactly the most hospitable for teenagers who are often forced to grow up too soon. And yet, Austin and Robby are surprisingly well rounded characters. Smith has penned them to be smart, intelligent, and keenly aware of what is happening around them. The author also spends some time examining the teenage psyche from Austin’s perspective. He brings Austin’s love interest into the picture as a way of illustrating how crazed he is by sex and how much it occupies his thoughts. Shann, Austin’s girlfriend, is a bit of an auxiliary character in Smith’s tale. Some readers may find her a bit underdeveloped, but Smith’s goal was not to bring her into the spotlight with Austin and Robby. Instead, she is more of an object by which Smith illustrates how superficial male teenage urges can be. One commentator surmises that “…if Shann wasn’t as attractive as she is descried, then maybe Austin wouldn’t have gone out with her.” But as Austin develops as a person throughout the story, the reader gets a better understanding of Shann and the role she plays in Austin’s life. And while the reader might still be peeved at Smith’s misuse of her potential in the narrative, one begins to understand that the story would not be the same without her.

A part of the way the author illustrates the inner workings of Austin’s mind is through his internal monologues, which only the reader is privy to. He ruminates on his Polish heritage, the sex-obsessed culture of the world around him and the hypocrisies of the American government. Certainly, these things are not top of mind for most teenage boys. However, the world Smith has created for him has forced him to look at his environment – as well as himself – differently.

As the narrative plays out and all hell breaks loose, the reader discovers, almost at the same time as Austin does, that he has more to do with the apocalyptic destruction of the world than he realized. Smith connects the dots between Austin’s internal ruminations and the larger plot being played out around him. For this reason, the author does not shy away from the use of lascivious language when the plot calls for it. Thus, the novel is a bit more graphic than most traditional YA novels. But Smith pushes the envelope of what is typically considered good, clean YA literature. Instead, he opts to tell a story in the most visceral manner possible. After all, are not the lives of teenagers lived viscerally anyway?



Readers may find themselves struggling to find that deep emotional connection that accompanies the devouring of a good book. And there are certainly moments that evoke an emotional response. However, the truth in this novel lies in Smith’s depiction of teenagers facing impossible circumstances, bot in their environment and in themselves. Certainly, readers can find some reminiscence of their own teen years as they observe Austin and Robby in a less than ideal world. Perhaps that kind of reminiscence was Smith’s point all along.