Reviews

Not sure how I feel about this - from my understanding, the aliens were never real, they were a figment of Henry's imagination trying to cope with all of the issues in his life. I kind of assumed the countdown was a countdown to when Henry himself would commit suicide??? Maybe now, but it is what I gleamed from subtext. Now here are some stories of other people being abducted by aliens - does that mean that the aliens element was true in the original novel??

who knows - and I don't know how to feel if that were true.

elliottblackbird's review

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4.0

What We Pretend To Be
AUG 9 2018
4.5 Stars

More alien abductions! Get up close with the aliens, and find out more; Set in the same world as We Are The Ants, Shaun David Hutchinson presents a twenty six page short story exploring the first time Henry was abducted by aliens, and a little-bit-a-lot more.

I have enjoyed nearly everything Shaun David Hutchinson has written, and I loved We Are The Ants, so anything connected to the book I was determined to read as soon as I was able to. (For Those who may be looking for a place to read it, it’s accessible on Riveted online, and I provided the link below) Shaun David Hutchinson seems to explore more ideas regarding the aliens and the abductions in this short, and it's a super interesting addition to what we already knew from We Are The Ants, only proving there is so much more we don’t know. I’m holding back so much right now that I want to talk about this book and can’t because that would be spoilers - so read it, because it’s only twenty six pages!

I had been left with questions surrounding We Are The Ants and the multiple abductions Henry experienced, and whether or not they were really occurring within the book, or just something Henry had been making up in his own mind. And I liked not having answers. Let me start by saying, I don’t think this short story proves they were real in the story, but it definitely causes you to think about it for a second. Arguably, it could also mean that

Spoiler

all of those who had been abducted are just others making it up in their own mind, just like Henry.

But either way, there’s still not a concrete answer, and I appreciate that. It leaves room to think. The thing that I don’t like about this book, is: if it is cannon within the We Are The Ants universe, a part of what I liked a lot about the book was thinking

Spoiler

that Henry was the only one being abducted.

Which, of course, this short story would prove otherwise. It’s totally worth reading though, but read We Are The Ants FIRST.

Anyone who is interested in We Are The Ants should read At The Edge Of the Universe. It’s another book by the same author, with a similar story. I enjoyed We Are The Ants more, but they were both good. I even read them back to back and wasn’t bothered. At The Edge Of The Universe is a book along quite parallel lines to We Are The Ants. I like to think of these two books as two ideas Shaun David Hutchinson may have had at some point, except he couldn’t choose which idea he liked more (and didn’t want to combine them), therefore writing two books. One, (We Are The Ants) where the world is going to end and a press of a button could save the world or destroy it, and a second (At The Edge of the Universe) where the world is slowly shrinking and one boy is the only one who knows. But also: parallel universes? I don’t know, you tell me. (Of course, that is just a possibility and I don’t actually know how true it might be, but it was my immediate thought after finishing the two books back to back.)

Available to read here: https://rivetedlit.com/2016/08/11/read-what-we-pretend-to-be-a-new-we-are-the-ants-short-story/

Until next time.

This is my opinion and never meant to completely discourage anyone from reading anything they think they may like reading. Good luck and happy reading!

owlwaysbookish's review

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5.0

Wow. Just wow. It was really interesting to explore more of the science fiction alien types things of this world as this story explores what other children would possibly do if they were abducted by the sluggers.
The one that hit me so hard was the transgender girl ouch, the fact that she saw herself in the mirror as she always wanted to be and she had to choose between that and her father wow. I assume they made the choice to send their father away.
Another one was the boy finding his brother after he had been taken two years ago and he had to choose someone else to replace him so he could take him back home ahhh.
The one where the boy and girl were both naked and the aliens wanted them to kiss hurt. The commentary and through processes in her head hit me hard. Like the fact that she was willing to see the boy go through pain because she didn't know what else the aliens would make her do if she complied.
The end I assume that was probably Henry's first visit with the sluggers back when he was 13 and didn't really know or understand what was going on. You see the innocents yet curiosity with him being like wow aliens and talking about all the stuff from the movies which was great.
The entire story was so clever and I really enjoyed the creativity and backstories with all the other people.

xkbr333's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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