We Are the Ants

A teenage kid must determine whether or not the world is worth preserving in this brand-new book from the author of The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley.

For years, aliens have been kidnapping Henry Denton on a regular basis. Then the aliens offer him a warning: all Henry has to do to avert the end of the world is to press a large red button. The world is set to die in 144 days.

He's just not sure whether he wants to.

After all, Henry's life hasn't exactly been wonderful. His mother is a labouring waitress whose survival is dependent on a thin coating of cigarette smoke. His brother just hit someone and is an unemployed dropout. Alzheimer's is slowly taking her own granny away. Furthermore, Henry is still grieving over his boyfriend's suicide from the previous year.

He thinks that wiping the slate clean is a wise decision.

However, Henry is a scientist first, so he approaches the issue carefully and methodically. He looks for advantages and disadvantages in the bully who is his constant one-night stand, in his closest buddy who deceived him, and in the intelligent but enigmatic student who accidentally went into the wrong class. Henry must make the final decision after weighing the pleasure and suffering around him: press the button to preserve the world and all living things on it.or allow the world—as well as his suffering—to ever be destroyed.