"Your entire sense of self-worth is predicated upon your belief that you matter, that you matter to the universe. 
 But you don't. 
 Because we are the ants" 
 Oh my goodness this book just tore me apart. 
 What an absolutely heart wrenching, powerful and poignant contemporary. This book is simultaneously haunting and tragic yet also beautifully uplifting. I absolutely cannot recommend it highly enough. 
 The story follows Henry Denton, struggling to cope in the wake of his boyfriend's suicide and his splintering family. He was first abducted by aliens when he was thirteen. Now, with the end of the world looming, the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the disaster. He has 144 days to make up his mind. The only problem is that he's just not quite sure that the world is worth saving. 
 The author handles so many incredibly difficult and compelling concepts, from the tangled web of family bonds to the harsh realities of bullying and abuse and the sheer intensity of living with mental illness and moving on in the wake of suicide, with utter skill and sensitivity. While this book is in many ways quite dark and intense, set against a very heavy backdrop of grief, loss and isolation, there is this undercurrent of almost wicked humour and a gentle compassion that reaches deep inside you and wraps itself around your heart. There is so much emotional intensity within each page of the story and the characters were beautifully written, complex and flawed, utterly authentic and achingly relatable. 
 This is the sort of book that resonates well past the last page, packing such an emotional punch and written with an intelligence and thoughtfulness not always found in the Young Adult genre. It has so much heart and soul and I just could not put it down. Painfully brilliant. 
 TW: suicide, abuse/bullying, mental illness