Everybody Sees the Ants Review

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Everybody Sees the Ants ReviewBeautiful, Candid, Believable. Everybody Sees the Ants is an exceptional book covering important topics for both parents and teens. Lucky Linderman is a fairly typical teen, he does fairly well in school, has a few friends, feels a little scrawny sometimes, but overall he is pretty adjusted to his life. The problem is Nader McMillan, the local punk, seems to have taken to bullying Lucky since they were both seven. As the reader, your heart hurts for Lucky and his attempts for normalcy, which include tolerating the horrible Nader. You see, Lucky has tried to get help with the bully situation, but the adults in his life offer little advice that helps. Lucky feels so hopeless, that when he actually needs help and is severely emotionally scarred; he has stopped talking to people about his bully problems. I think that is what has struck me the most after reading this book- the adults were not really able to help Lucky when he needed it and left him feeling like he was the one who wasn't normal. "Instead of shutting me up over it [asking what the point of living is in a hard world], why can't they just answer me? ...I think it's because they feel bad for not making it fair. Rather than actually fix it, they freak out on kids who say thinks like, `I'd rather suck truck fumes than go through one more day of this place.' Or say things like `I'll understand when I'm forty.' But I want to understand now." (p. 130) I just wanted to scream at everyone and tell them to admit to Lucky that life is HARD and awful sometimes and that it is okay to feel that way rather than guilt him and make him feel weird for hating it sometimes.

Thankfully, he is surrounded by adults who are messed-up just badly enough for him to start to draw some helpful conclusions on his own. I wish that every kid had a set of parents who have successfully navigated life and can then help lead their children through the tough maze called living, but unfortunately, most adults carry baggage and problems that can leave them scarred and left licking their own wounds. As Lucky and his Mom begin to bond during their escape trip to Arizona, a turning point comes for Lucky as you see him realize that his family all has problems. While patching up the back patio he thinks, "It would be nice to be able to fix my life the way I'm fixing the patio. I wonder, is there enough terracotta-colored cement to fill the hole where my Father should be? Or where my mother's spine should be? Or where my guts should be?" (P. 129) Thankfully, (I suppose) Lucky realizes that he is going to have to stand up for himself, that it is up to him to stop Nader, to face his own demons so he can move forward. I was so proud when his mother also learns some of that for herself too. This realization for Lucky then frees him to love his parents- weird quirks and limitations included. He is a victim, and life is definitely not fair, his parent's sortta suck- but Lucky isn't giving up and this will not continue to limit him. A.S. King has written an important book here. In order to keep this review short, I have skipped over all of the Ants, POW/Grandpa, and hair model Ginny portion of this story, which is also wonderful. Read this book. It's heavy stuff, but important. Who knows, you might just feel a little more "normal" once you are done. This review is from an ARC copy I received from the publisher.
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