What’s Raising Our Pulse Book Club: We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
by Shaun David Hutchinson
Published by Simon Pulse
Publication Date: January 2016
There are a few things Henry Denton knows, and a few things he doesn’t.
Henry knows that his mom is struggling to keep the family together, and coping by chain-smoking cigarettes. He knows that his older brother is a college dropout with a pregnant girlfriend. He knows that he is slowly losing his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. And he knows that his boyfriend committed suicide last year.
What Henry doesn’t know is why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.
But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.
The question is whether Henry thinks the world is worth saving. That is, until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that. (Cover and synopsis from Goodreads.)
If you were presented with the button, what would YOU consider?
It may be an easy answer for me, because I’m married and have two kids and I have played apocalyptic scenarios in my head before, and the thing that really scares me is what if my kids and husband and I weren’t together when it happened? What if my older son was at school and my baby and I were at home but my husband was gone somewhere? What if for some reason we were really far apart and we couldn’t get to each other because cars stopped working or there were zombies in between us or something like that? I know that’s not really what happens in We Are the Ants but the idea of the end of the world makes me, as a parent, think of these things. Anyway, I’m just pretty sure that I’d push the button right away.
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Kate Midnight Book Girl
February 10, 2016 at 12:37 pmMy problem wouldn't be whether or not to save earth- I would. My problem would be in trusting that by pressing the button that would actually be the result. Like, maybe the aliens are trying to trick me into blowing up my planet… I'd be all like Vizzini in Princess Bride, arguing myself dizzy until I just keel over dead.
Sheena-kay Graham
February 10, 2016 at 10:46 pmI agree with Kate, my issue would also be if the aliens are being honest. But at the end of the day I would likely press the button after some thought as long as I don't find out the aliens are lying. So my need for time would be to double check these alien's story.