alienor's review
4.0
Of course we are. You are. They are. Now what are we doing to change that, tell me?
Let's clear the air right away : Each and every one of the characters is complex and believable, from the teenagers to the adults in their lives. As it is, they're flawed. They're realistic. Once again I have to say that in my book that's the most important in a contemporary. I don't care about perfect people, otherwise I would read old fairytales, you know, those where the girl is waiting for her perfect guy to step in to save the day. *pukes*
✐ [a:A.S. King|1651879|A.S. King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1323437957p2/1651879.jpg] created such a believable and relatable voice for Lucky - I mean relatable in the "I talk 2659 words in a minute way" because strangely, while reading the book I couldn't help but feel like Lucky spoke in a really fast fashion. Am I weird? Tell me? Anyway - I talk like that. Well, I learned to talk slower because, DUH, it's better for a teacher when your pupils actually UNDERSTAND what you say but in my personal life? Ask my boyfriend, he'll tell you. I'm exhausting.
But moving on.
"Apparently, Evelyn Schwartz went blabbing to the guidance counselor about my questionnaire. She said it was "morbid" and "creepy". (Evelyn Schwartz has a T-shirt that says HE DIED FOR ME with a picture of a dead guy nailed to a cross on it. Oh, the irony.)"
Moreover, I'm a sucker for this kind of irreverent humor, and from the moment Lucky joked about the guy who died for this annoying girl (aka, Jesus), I knew that he and I would be BBF forever. And guess what! I was right! Happy dance right now because to be right is such an awesome feeling (sorry about that, but you have to admit...).
Don't get fooled by his sarcastic humor though, because Lucky's inner thoughts are sometimes full of self-deprecation - don't say you don't know what I mean. But I'll come back to that later.
► [b:Everybody Sees the Ants|9711714|Everybody Sees the Ants|A.S. King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1337213907l/9711714._SY75_.jpg|14600231] made me furious. So angry at all these cowards, because you know what? They're sadly believable.
"Because it's not about kicking his ass. It's about getting away from him. Getting away from all assholes. I don't want to become one - I just want to escape them."
Indeed this book deals with bullying, and in my opinion [a:A.S. King|1651879|A.S. King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1323437957p2/1651879.jpg] handled this tough issue with a lot of honesty and talent. Indeed contrary to other books I could read, every struggle, every fear, every despair Lucky feels strikes an honest and familiar chord, making him so relatable to me even though I've never been bullied. Yeah, I've never been bullied, maybe (I hope) you've never been either, but then, who can say without a doubt that he never felt awkward or worthless or lonely someday? Who? Let's be frank : nobody.
Everybody sees the ants, guys. Everybody knows these moments where it seems that nobody can understand who they are and what they need.
Moreover, to me the way the adults were portrayed was pretty realistic, as it showed the different reactions children meet when facing bullying. As a teacher, I often have to deal with children's fights or altercations and the two most frequent reactions from adults are :
1)You have to ignore them and
2)Why didn't you fight back?
The truth is, it doesn't work most of the time. It doesn't work, and children know it - they need us to step in and help them, to frame the discussion between them. Young bullies need someone to tell them that IT'S NOT OKAY, and bullied need to be heard and feel understood. In my opinion to let 7-10 years old children deal with this kind of things alone is a fucking coward move, but sadly, it is how most of adults react.
This or as Aunt Jodie, calling specialists without even LISTENING for starters. Oh, and do you know what maddens me the most? People who tell me that it's "children worthless stuff". Yeah, right. Because it's so funny to be pushed or belittled. I mean, come on. Stop being assholes. Yes I believe that children need to talk together to solve their problems but they do need us to provide them a safe bubble to manage that. I don't care who their parents are, at school they're all equals and each and every one of them must follow the rules. That's all.
For sure I'm not saying that I have all the answers, because I don't, and maybe there aren't right answers. But I try. It's frightening, but I try, and if I'm sure that I fuck up badly sometimes, well, I do my best anyway, and I can only hope that it's something.
So, yeah. Lucky's story moved me. However, I had a hard time connecting with the characters in the dream part. Indeed whilst it didn't put me off completely, I have to admit that it confused me and decreased my interest. I'm not usually thrown off guard by weird stuff, but what can I say? It didn't work for me, as I couldn't help but disconnect from the story each time we were brought into one of his dreams. More generally, I got the impression that the plot dragged at some parts (in the middle in particular) and if I wasn't bored, I wasn't captivated either unfortunately.
Anyway, despite my inability to thoroughly love this book, some parts punched me in the guts and I feel the need to let my rating at 3.5 because I frankly believe that this kind of realistic stories is needed. Teenagers need to read about bullying. Adults need to acknowledge it. I know, I know, most of adults would say that they do acknowledge it but trust me, in real life? They don't always do it. I don't want to live in a world where we have to slap someone in order for him to let us alone. I don't care about what everybody says. There are other ways to deal with it, and I see every day that it works. Yes, that's true, it takes time and energy, but for real? It's so worth it.
"The world is full of assholes. What are you doing to make sure you're not one of them?"
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jenn_the_unicorn's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dani005's review
5.0
I loved this book so much!
This had one of the best character developments that i have read so far in a long time. The development wasn't rushed, as you watched this kid work through things that are hard for any fifteen year old to comprehend. The obstacles that Lucky had to face were beyond hard and they were things that no fifteen year old should have to face. But then that doesn't seem to matter sometimes in our society because circumstances happen that we can't control and often, even those in higher authority who can help do something about it don't because we get too caught up in our own lives so much of the time, to notice the harsh realities occurring around. That's what Lucky was having to deal with; learning where to rely on others and where to rely on himself.
The subject of this book isn't an easy topic in the least. But A.S. King did a fantastic job of approaching it. He wound each section of this story so smoothly, introducing aspects with a smooth continuous pace so that no aspect was rushed too fast and thrown all up in your face but neither had been allowed to become too slow either. He knew how to foreshadow the events of the story with just enough of a hint of what is to come to create a building suspense. As well, he didn't shy away either from the brutal honesty of the subject he was incorporating into his story and just how cruel some kids can be.
However, this book wasn't all doom and gloom. Not even close. There were fantastic comedic reliefs also. In all honesty, in the beginning of the book and being introduced to the ants (major instigators of comedic relief alongside of course Lucky himself), i wasn't sure what to make of them because they just seemed kind of out of place. But they grow on you. they do. They become these fantastic side characters as the story pregresses that chant and scream for Lucky and you can't help it but chant and scream along with them. They added a different partial perspective that just helped to keep the story from becoming too dark.
Also, the secondary characters involved in this story were intertwined within this story beautifully. THe author introduces them and you see them how Lucky first viewed them and then as time passed, Lucky's perspective changed of these people as he saw that people aren't always as they seem and he starts to understand them and accept them for their flaws and learn to love them. Lucky came to see them not as perfect individuals that he could be envious of anymore, but as others like himself who were struggling with their own faults and shortcomings and hardships. They became people who he could connect with and empathize with and be empathized for. They added whole layers and dimensions to this novel that folded themselves into this story to create it as a whole elaborate illustration of what it is to face the hardships in life; creating a raw, heart-warming and often hilarious story of just how hard it is sometimes to learning to grow and be yourself as a teen.
This book deals with a heavy subject and no it didn't explore every concept to the idea of bullying and there were so many angles of other characters that we didn't get to see but then maybe that's just something left unsaid; something for the reader to think about. These secondary characters all had such complicated lives and A.S King saw to making that clear to us through the perceptions of Lucky. We saw through Lucky's eyes, just how clearly possible it is that all of us, each have our own hardships to rise up to; that all of us see the ants in every day of our own lives.
This had one of the best character developments that i have read so far in a long time. The development wasn't rushed, as you watched this kid work through things that are hard for any fifteen year old to comprehend. The obstacles that Lucky had to face were beyond hard and they were things that no fifteen year old should have to face. But then that doesn't seem to matter sometimes in our society because circumstances happen that we can't control and often, even those in higher authority who can help do something about it don't because we get too caught up in our own lives so much of the time, to notice the harsh realities occurring around. That's what Lucky was having to deal with; learning where to rely on others and where to rely on himself.
The subject of this book isn't an easy topic in the least. But A.S. King did a fantastic job of approaching it. He wound each section of this story so smoothly, introducing aspects with a smooth continuous pace so that no aspect was rushed too fast and thrown all up in your face but neither had been allowed to become too slow either. He knew how to foreshadow the events of the story with just enough of a hint of what is to come to create a building suspense. As well, he didn't shy away either from the brutal honesty of the subject he was incorporating into his story and just how cruel some kids can be.
However, this book wasn't all doom and gloom. Not even close. There were fantastic comedic reliefs also. In all honesty, in the beginning of the book and being introduced to the ants (major instigators of comedic relief alongside of course Lucky himself), i wasn't sure what to make of them because they just seemed kind of out of place. But they grow on you. they do. They become these fantastic side characters as the story pregresses that chant and scream for Lucky and you can't help it but chant and scream along with them. They added a different partial perspective that just helped to keep the story from becoming too dark.
Also, the secondary characters involved in this story were intertwined within this story beautifully. THe author introduces them and you see them how Lucky first viewed them and then as time passed, Lucky's perspective changed of these people as he saw that people aren't always as they seem and he starts to understand them and accept them for their flaws and learn to love them. Lucky came to see them not as perfect individuals that he could be envious of anymore, but as others like himself who were struggling with their own faults and shortcomings and hardships. They became people who he could connect with and empathize with and be empathized for. They added whole layers and dimensions to this novel that folded themselves into this story to create it as a whole elaborate illustration of what it is to face the hardships in life; creating a raw, heart-warming and often hilarious story of just how hard it is sometimes to learning to grow and be yourself as a teen.
This book deals with a heavy subject and no it didn't explore every concept to the idea of bullying and there were so many angles of other characters that we didn't get to see but then maybe that's just something left unsaid; something for the reader to think about. These secondary characters all had such complicated lives and A.S King saw to making that clear to us through the perceptions of Lucky. We saw through Lucky's eyes, just how clearly possible it is that all of us, each have our own hardships to rise up to; that all of us see the ants in every day of our own lives.
gabriella's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Sexual assault
lazygal's review
3.0
This is a great book for any boy who has been bullied and who feels as though his parents (and, ok, most others) don't quite understand him. Lucky's life has been filled with trying to avoid Nader, the school bully, and dealing with his chef father's near disappearance from his life. Complicating all this is the fact that his grandfather was declared MIA during Vietnam, something his father and paternal grandmother never quite got over.
Most readers will have seen the MIA/POW flags and stickers, but because the war ended so long ago (although I remember the marches and "War Is Not Healthy..." buttons, as well as the POW bracelets) they may not know what that means. However, that's not the main thrust of the book - the war, and his grandfather's MIA status serve as a vehicle for him to explore growing up and getting male advice.
So, what about the ants? They appear after the Big Incident, and their Greek Chorus-like appearance for the rest of the book is really quite funny. Example: Lucky is in church and he's just been semi-introduced to this perfect, gorgeous girl. The ants' comment? She's so out of your league that she's playing a completely different sport.
The problems of bullying and Lucky's family life are dealt with humorously, and I can see this appealing to both boys and girls, no matter what their situation is.
ARC provided by publisher.
Most readers will have seen the MIA/POW flags and stickers, but because the war ended so long ago (although I remember the marches and "War Is Not Healthy..." buttons, as well as the POW bracelets) they may not know what that means. However, that's not the main thrust of the book - the war, and his grandfather's MIA status serve as a vehicle for him to explore growing up and getting male advice.
So, what about the ants? They appear after the Big Incident, and their Greek Chorus-like appearance for the rest of the book is really quite funny. Example: Lucky is in church and he's just been semi-introduced to this perfect, gorgeous girl. The ants' comment? She's so out of your league that she's playing a completely different sport.
The problems of bullying and Lucky's family life are dealt with humorously, and I can see this appealing to both boys and girls, no matter what their situation is.
ARC provided by publisher.
bookgoonie's review
4.0
Lucky suffers from bullying & the fact that his grandfather is a POW/MIA from Vietnam. You find out that EVERYONE has baggage. But Lucky has been communing with his grandfather in his dreams in order to deal with the shit being shoveled his way. A short vacation & the Vagina Monologues helps Lucky to get a grip on reality, stand up to his bully & pull his family out of their funk.
accioanna's review against another edition
2.0
A mix of Okay for now, Me and Earl, Wonder and early John Green, I would say. Did not like, but not as bad as a 1-star
cam_go_loud's review
I really liked this one- it's the good kind of weird, a fresh take on the high school bullying narrative. I loved the magical realism element and the theme of the ants (who were kind of hilarious). The subtle exploration of gender roles and issues was unexpected but added another layer of complexity to Lucky's story. And I learned some Vietnam facts along the way!
