Review: The Alex Crow

"There's not a single thing on this planet- not an organism, a sea, a river or lake, and event eh weather that surrounds us, that hasn't been changed by human beings. For good or bad, we're in charge of the rate at which everything changes now. Every living thing, and the majority of nonliving systems too." 
 
Title: The Alex Crow
Author: Andrew Smith
Publication Date: March 10th, 2015
Publisher: Dutton Books
Source: Bought it
Where to find: Goodreads / Amazon





By now everyone should know how much I appreciate Andrew Smith and his writing. I love the humor, the wittiness, and even the absolute absurdity of his books. The Alex Crow is no exception to this. For me the writing technique was very similar to Grasshopper Jungle. The story is all intertwined between these 3 different perspectives we follow throughout the book. We have Ariel both in the present and in the past, we have Lenny and his bombing journey, and finally we have the arctic expedition in 1880. At first all these stories seemed so different but they all came together somehow.

And I know you are probably thinking that is not that weird, but once you learn about the experiments being done by the Alex Division things start to become really strange. The bionic pet Crow the Burgesses have is such a strange character and he is also somewhat central to the bizarre things that the company has been researching and conducting. The shining moments of humor in this book are the boys at summer camp. That is when we see the crazy things they get up as they piece together just what the Alex Department does.

The difference for me and this book was just how series the topics were. You had Ariel who is a refugee living with a new family in America. We learn all about the horrors that Ariel dealt with before moving to Sunday. And this story is woven into the narrative and story about the research and science experiments. I really appreciate how Andrew Smith discussed these topics while also staying weird. This book starts off in a really dark place with the attack on Ariel’s village and from there we continue on this journey.

This book was not at all a disappointment. It lived up to my expectations for an Andrew Smith novel. It was weird but also intrigued me with its moral questions about just how far humans are willing to go in their thirst for knowledge. And that reincarnated bionic crow was a favorite character for me. We did not get a lot of scenes with him, but he was integral to the stories all tying together.

♛ ♛ ♛ ♛

Let me know in the comments if you have read the book and what your thoughts are. 

Strain 412E in Ealing, Iowa

"Events that night were going to set in motion a disaster that would probably wipe out human life on the planet. That night, I was going to say something to Shann I had never said to anyone. I was going to do something I'd never done, and see things I could not understand and never believed existed."

Title: Grasshopper Jungle
Author: Andrew Smith
Publication Date: February 11th 2014 
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Where to find: Goodreads / Amazon





Three things: first, this was book one of the #ProjectTBR Read-a-thon and second, just FYI, this review is very scattered and jumbled. I thought about making it more concise but decided against it to keep in like with the randomness that was this book. And third, like I have heard from many people, this book is not for everyone. I think it is the right book for some people, but wrong for other people.


It is no secret that Winger is one of my absolute favorite books. So I really want to get my hands on and read all of Andrew Smith’s books. Grasshopper Jungle was just one of those books. This book grabbed my attention just based on the synopsis and the gorgeous cover!

As for the actual book, we follow kid historian, Austin, his best friend Robby, and his girlfriend, Shann in their little town of Ealing. But things in Ealing are not as boring as you would think when Austin and Robby basically start the apocalypse by release an unstoppable virus. This virus basically turns people into praying mantises who only want to mate and eat. The book follows Austin, Robby, Shann, and the rest of Ealing’s residents as they deal with these unstoppable creatures.

Andrew Smith did not disappoint with his witty writing and amusing characters. The chapter titles for this book were also fantastic. When you first read them, you would be confused but at the end of the chapter it would make sense. After I would finish a chapter, I would always look back at the title and see the connection. There were times when Austin bothered me. He was characterized as constantly horny and at times his constant acknowledgement of it went over board. However, I did love the theme of Austin’s confused sexuality. It was a large aspect of the book since Austin is in love with both Shann and thinks he may be the same with Robby.

Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the absolute ridiculousness of it. There were times when I had no idea what I was reading, but I still loved it. The timeline of this book was also fantastic. Since Austin was a historian, the book would explain what everyone was doing at a specific time in detail. I loved the all encompassing nature of the narrative. We always knew what every character was doing a certain times. I have to believe this is solely due to Andrew Smith’s ability as a writer. I have no idea what inspired this tale of Austin and Ealing, Iowa but it was highly enjoyable. I also loved the commentary about how the unstoppable creatures were a result of greedy scientists wanting to create the impossible.

As for ending of the book, I’m still undecided. It was one of those open ends but at the same time it wasn’t. I wanted more about the creatures and the aftermath. But at the same time, I liked how you never truly know.

♛ ♛ ♛ ♛

Let me know in the comments if you have read the book and what your thoughts are.

Ghost Medicine by Andrew Smith

“So things do not happen by coincidence, and everything that is, is really a collision of paths. And so luck, which I also do not believe in in the way that most people do, is merely a chain of certain reckless collisions.”

Andrew Smith is one of my favorite authors, so when I saw this book at the used bookstore, I had to have it. This book is a YA western, coming-of-age story about Troy and his friends living in a rural setting near ranches and farms. This setting was fairly foreign to me, but I still enjoyed the laid back aspect of the characters lives.

The book focuses on Troy, Tommy, and Gabe and their battles with town bad-boy Chase. They boys basically band together against Chase. The rivalry heats up pretty quickly when shots are fired. This all leads to one final battle where lives will be lost. While the rivalry is the main part of this book, Troy is also dealing with the death of his mother and his new relationship with Luz.

This book did not have the humor and wittiness that I am accustomed to with Andrew Smith’s other novels, mainly 100 Sideways Miles and Winger, but it still had that same style that I adore. The plot of this book was extremely slow to start and it took a good third or more to get into the book. But once the action picked up, I flew through the last 150 pages of this book.

While this book was not what I was expecting, it was still enjoyable. Since it is Andrew Smith’s fist novel, you can really see how far his writing has come in his more recent works.

✶ ✶ ✶ and 1/2 stars  

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

I’ve been reading a lot of paranormal/fantasy lately, so I decided to return to contemporary for this one. Andrew Smith is a new author for me. But I’m so obsessed with Winger. It is by far my favorite contemporary book with If I Stay close but still in a semi-distant second place. As for the actual book, the cover of 100 Sideways Miles is absolutely gorgeous, not to mention the beauty that is the back of the dust jacket. It is also a fairly short novel being under 300 pages. So a short read for me.

:|:

This book did not disappoint at all. It was just as I expected full of Andrew Smith’s wit and humor. Finn as a character was great. He is a 16/17 year old, epileptic, with heterochromatic eyes (one blue and one green). He has a scar shaped like this :|: on his back after the falling horse accident. Finn’s dad also has a book that is strangely very similar to Finn’s life. This is a large part of the identity crisis that Finn goes through. He is not sure if he is really there or just stuck in a book. Finn is also very literal and bases everything off of atoms coming together and how much the Earth moved in the time elapsed. I really enjoyed the recurring mentions of atoms and these distances that were literally on every page. On top of this, Finn had also survived a traumatic event of being hit by a dead horse. This accident took his mom away and also broke his back leading to his epilepsy.

:|:

The first part of this book is very introduction heavy. It is just over a hundred pages introducing us to Finn, Cade, and Julia. Not much else happens in terms of plot and development. Well, I guess Finn has his first kiss and falls in love. But there is not much else happening. It is in the second part that everything starts to change and happen. Cade and Julia fall in love and then she leaves. The third part consists of Cade and Finn going on their road trip to Oklahoma.

:|:

This book did not have too much of a plot, it was more about Finn growing to accept himself and who he was post horse falling from the sky incident. This book while not was I was expected in terms of plot it was everything I wanted in an Andrew Smith book. Having now read two Andrew Smith books I think I can safely say he is one of my favorite writers, plus he has a way of ending his stories. Winger has one of my favorite last pages of all time and this book had just as memorable of an ending. 100 Sideways Miles is a fantastic book that really captivated me with its wit and seemingly pointless details that all connected to form this book. 

✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ Stars!

Winger by Andrew Smith

I literally have no idea what I can say about this book other than amazing. Maybe the first 20 pages were meh, but the rest of the book more than made up for it. Andrew Smith’s writing is both entertaining and hilarious. I don’t really know what else to say about it. I just love the way he combines what is happening to Ryan Dean, what is going on around him, and what Ryan Dean is thinking. It is amazing. Plus all the pictures and cartoons and things. And I almost forgot this book also takes place at a boarding school, you cannot get much better than that.

Well, now that I’ve completely ranted about how much I loved this book. Let me just continue and say that even though Ryan Dean is a ridiculously flawed character who makes ridiculously stupid mistakes, I cannot help but love him and eagerly wait to see how he is going to talk his way out of something. And I felt so bad for him at the end. He had finally got his life mostly together, when life just had to throw a curve ball at him. Regardless of the end, Ryan Dean was still able to grow throughout the book and was not the same character by any means at the end.

The last thing I want to mention is how much I absolutely adored the final chapter of this book. Even though it was less than a page long. It was perfect and totally summed everything up. That chapter has the potential to be my favorite way to end a book (at least a book that isn’t in a series).

5/5 Stars and definitely one of my favorites of the year!