Also, can we talk about how therapy and proper medical assistance were highlighted as essential for the recovery on mental health issues? It means so much to me as someone who was saved and was taken care of by my psychiatrist and therapist. ( All The... *coughs* Bright... *coughs* can't relate.)

We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live. The universe may forget us, but it doesn’t matter. Because we are the ants, and we’ll keep marching on." Also, I found all of these resources from The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, which is another amazing book that I completely recommend for anyone looking for more books that center around mental illness. And I’m obvious not a therapist, but my DMs will always be open for anyone who just needs a friend to talk to. You are deserving of love and happiness, sometimes it just takes a little while to find those things, but I promise you are worthy of them. And I promise that you matter.

The stalk-eyed, variably tentacled sluggers' repeated, humiliating abductions and habit of dumping Henry in strange places with minimal clothing make Henry's life tough, but the focus here is less on the aliens and more on the button. Bullied at school, pushed around at home, and reeling from his once-boyfriend's suicide, Henry doesn't think he wants to press it. "If you knew the world was going to end but you could prevent it, would you?" becomes a sort of refrain throughout, and each character who answers not only reveals his or her own carefully imagined depths, but also sheds light on Henry's existential dilemmas. Whether Henry is hooking up in secret with the popular golden boy who torments him in public, watching his beloved Nana lose her memories, or being physically and verbally assaulted at school, at parties, and online, he maintains a biting, vulgar wit. There is both a budding romance and, via Henry's older brother, a baby on the way, but the novel meticulously avoids easy fixes for Henry's nihilism. Instead, his journey is subtle and hard-won, with meditations on the past, the present, and the future that are equal parts sarcastic and profound. As the story unfolds, readers learn that Henry has lost his boyfriend, Jesse, to suicide, has an extremely complicated and dysfunctional home life, is having a secret affair with his most vengeful bully, and has had the fate of the world placed in his hands. The aliens, that Henry calls sluggers, have revealed that the world will end on January 29, 2016, and he has the power to stop it by simply pushing a button. Condemned to daily suffering, will Henry save the world? …show more content… I bought this book as part of a 30 Days of Pride Book Review project. The following is that review: Why does Henry agree, at one point, to press the button if the sluggers don’t make him return to earth? Why do you think they do not agree to this proposition? What do they offer him instead? 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."

The material, on the whole, "does not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value." [18] Needless to say, it's a massive responsibility to put on the shoulders of just one high school boy. Is the world even worth saving? Should he just end it all now and save everyone from their misery? Nobody seems to understand why Henry allows Marcus into his life. What does Henry see in Marcus that the others can’t? Are there any other reasons that Henry thinks he should be with Marcus? Why is Marcus attracted to Henry? How does their relationship change over the course of the story? Curriculum & Instruction / Current Book Challenges". Keller Independent School District . Retrieved 2022-08-19. Our main character has been abducted by aliens. They give him a choice. A choice where the fate of the world rests on his shoulder. He's been given 144 days to decide whether he wants to end to world or save it. But Henry isn't sure whether he wants to.Physicists have theorized that we live in an infinite and infinitely expanding universe, and that everything in it will eventually repeat. There are infinite copies of your mom and your dad and your clothes-stealing little sister. There are infinite copies of you. Despite what you’ve spent your entire life believing, you are not a special snowflake. Somewhere out there, another you is living your life. Chances are, they’re living it better. They’re learning to speak French or screwing their brains out instead of loafing on the couch in their boxers, stuffing their face with bowl after bowl of Fruity Oatholes while wondering why they’re all alone on a Friday night. But that’s not even the worst part. What’s really going to send you running over the side of the nearest bridge is that none of it matters. I’ll die, you’ll die, we’ll all die, and the things we’ve done, the choices we’ve made, will amount to nothing. I get it, he was grieving and confused and didn't know how to feel but it bothers me so much that people in ya books about grieve always act like the feelings of other people don't matter. They always treat them like shit. That's just not okay. There are definitely people out there who act like that after losing someone but that doesn't make it any better.