“This provocative jaunt…dissects society, technology, othering, and what makes humanity human.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review) “An unpredictable, gross, and prescient rumination on modernity, media consumption, and machine-aided communication.” –Booklist (starred review) Told with Andrew Smith’s signature dark humor, Rabbit & Robot tells the story of Cager Messer, a boy who’s … the story of Cager Messer, a boy who’s stranded on the Tennessee–his father’s lunar-cruise utopia–with insane robots.
To help him shake his Woz addiction, Billy and Rowan transport Cager Messer up to the Tennessee, a giant lunar-cruise ship orbiting the moon. Meanwhile, Earth, in the midst of thirty simultaneous wars, burns to ash beneath them. And as the robots on board become increasingly insane and cannibalistic, and the Earth becomes a toxic wasteland, the boys have to wonder if they’ll be stranded alone in space forever.
In Rabbit & Robot, Andrew Smith, Printz Honor author of Grasshopper Jungle, makes you laugh, cry, and consider what it really means to be human.
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I realize I’ve only actually read one other book by Andrew Smith, something I need to rectify, although I guess I did try to read The Alex Crow, and couldn’t get into it. But I loved the first book I read by him, Grasshopper Jungle, and I would say this book reminds me a lot of that one. The wacky out there science fiction story of a world where everyone is basically controlled by a corporation combined with the angst of teen boys and girls and those unsure exactly of their sexual orientation or at least undergoing gender reassignment makes for a roller coaster of a read. And not only that, but Smith gets you laughing out loud at so many things, unless it is just that I have the sense of humor of an adolescent still. There was one character in particular, Parker, that always had me giggling like a middle school boy. When I read stories like this, with all the craziness and out there bits, I just wonder how in the world does someone’s brain work in those ways. And then I remember that Andrew Smith, the author, is a teacher, so he sees the kind of things that you really can’t make up every day at his job. Highly recommend this one!
Last weekend we were in New Orleans to celebrate my husband’s dad’s birthday. Coincidentally, ALA was also going on at the same time and I kept thinking maybe I’d run into some of my library people while about town, but I never did.
THANKFULLY, however, my husband did happen to run into Andrew Smith in the airport as we were waiting to fly home, and, being approximately a billion times less socially awkward than I am, he apparently actually managed to say coherent words in Smith’s presence and also received the last arc of this book that Smith had brought with him. Then he came back to where I was sitting and said, “you’re gonna be mad, but…as I was coming out of the bathroom I ran into Andrew Smith…” and I was like, “WHAT.”
Anyway, I very much was mad. And jealous. And was like, “but…you’re gonna let me read this first, right???” And then Andrew Smith walked by where we were sitting and came over to say hi since my husband had told him I’d be mad. And he asked my name and said, “nice to meet you,” and I almost started to remind him that I’ve met him before and that I’m that weirdo whose friends had him take a photo with a dorky picture of me on their phone that one time (haha, Ramarie and Ashley, you’re still the best!), and then the next year at Texas Teen Book Festival I made him take a picture with me holding up my phone with that photo of him with the picture of me on the screen (he was like, “Um. This is a new one…”), but I stopped myself and just did the regular socially awkward thing instead and basically just blacked out.
Blah blah blah, I’ve just been basking in the glow of our very fortunate timing (our flight got cancelled like five minutes later) and my husband’s superior talking-to-people abilities and how amazingly nice Andrew Smith is all week. While I read this book first.
And…and…and…um…okay, so, I’m definitely still processing it. Like in all of Smith’s books, the characters are wonderful—sad and funny and flawed and beautiful—and a lot is being said without ever exactly being spelled out. And it’s weird and wacky and dark and…so very human. And the story behind Billy Hinman! Ha!
I really do love Shaun David Hutchinson’s statement that it’s “Andrew Smith at his Andrew Smithiest.” If you’re familiar with Grasshopper Jungle and The Marbury Lens and The Alex Crow, you maybe know a little what to expect.
I’m planning to listen to the audio as soon as that’s available (arghhhhh, months from now!!!), and in the meantime will probably reread this copy again because it’s been too long between Andrew Smith books and the withdrawal has been hard. Very, very hard!
I guess I’d better let my husband read it before I do that though, since it’s his book and all!
Sighhhhhh…