Everybody Sees The Ants

This book made me realize that there is no problem in being different. However, it was really interesting, making me want to read it even more. But all the more hilarious. In a more mature way. Recommended for high school boys especially but girls will enjoy it all the same. I know I did.

I found this around the time I read Kiki Strike. I was just browsing in the Young Adult's section and came across it. I liked the story and decided to read it. It's a very realistic story.
Here's the cover-

Lucky has an interesting yet very hard life. His father is a professional chef who is often away. His mother is a swimmer who takes her passion very seriously. And he is just Lucky. Lucky the Loner. Lucky the Loser. Lucky the Lucky I guess. Not that it matters in any way. To him at least. But that's all he lets on. And there's more going on in his life than anyone can ever imagine.

Every night, he journeys to the jungles of Laos in Vietnam where his grandfather went missing. And in his dreams, he sees his grandfather, all wide smiles and powerful rifles. And he starts to see ants. A single file line of ants that seems to go in any direction. And they tease him all the time. They tell him he's weak. They tell him that he's useless. But they're only hallucinations. 

But his school life is just plain strange. He now sees the counselor every once in a while because of a class survey he wrote for a project. He wrote on his ballots "How would you want to kill yourself?". Which actually isn't half that bad of a question. But maybe it's bad for a school project. So now his parents and his counselor think that he is being bullied and his need for attention is showing through the project.
True, he is being bullied, but still it's enough for him to cope with. He's got only one real friend. Laura. A girl from his class who plays cards with him at the pool when his mom is swimming. And then there are the idiots that tease him. They are a rather notorious gang in the school, but focus their attention primarily on Lucky. The strange thing is that no one notices him at all except them.

Suddenly, for one week during the summer vacation, Lucky's mother drags him to his yoga obsessed aunt's house. Literally she's yoga obsessed. Because she keeps yelling at him to put his clothes and bags in specific places so that it "doesn't disrupt the flow of chi throughout the house." Yeah, that lady has either been watching way too many martial arts movies or is taking yoga way too seriously.
One night, he gets dragged outside in the middle of the night by a band of rebellious girls in all black who teach him the ways of being different from the crowd. He likes being with all of them, but the one he enjoys the company of most is Virginia or Ginny. She's actually a model for shampoo commercials but has been trying to convince her cheap parents not to sell her off to some random company so they can make loads of money.
While spending time with Ginny, he starts to find comfort in a real friend. In a friend who has also gone through similar and still very different experiences. Even though he doesn't know it, this could possibly be the best week of Lucky's life.

My thoughts-

Really funny. It was just one of those laugh out loud novels. Literally you could "LOL" at everything each of the characters say.
One thing I learned from Lucky- Don't complain about your life because you can always escape from it in your imagination.
I also have that horrible habit of complaining about everything. A quote that relates to this book and my problem- "All I wanna do is trade this life for something new, holding on to what I haven't got." We all hate our lives for some reason or another. And we always want to change them for some reason. That's part of what makes us human. Don't worry. You are not alone.
Now back to the book. It was an interesting and entertaining story. I spent two whole nights reading it. Which clearly proves that I love it. I'd recommend it for lovers of slightly older young adult fiction and comedy.

((Just one really awesome standalone novel. No sequel that I know of.))