Yes, We Are the Ants Is Banned!

Shaun David Hutchinson’s We Are the Ants is a book that defies easy categorization. Henry Denton has been abducted by aliens periodically since he was thirteen. Now they’ve given him a button: press it before a deadline and the world is saved; don’t press it and everything ends. The catch is that Henry isn’t sure the world is worth saving. His boyfriend committed suicide, his family is falling apart, he’s being bullied at school, and the new boy in town is complicated in ways Henry can’t quite figure out. The novel uses science fiction as scaffolding for a story about depression, grief, and the daily decision to keep going.

We Are the Ants was challenged 9 times in the 2024-2025 PEN America data, primarily in Florida and Tennessee school districts. The challenges cite LGBTQ+ content (Henry is gay), sexual themes, and the depiction of suicide. Hutchinson, who is gay, has written extensively about the importance of queer representation in YA literature, particularly stories where the protagonist’s queerness isn’t the central conflict. In We Are the Ants, Henry’s sexuality is simply part of who he is; the central conflict is whether existence matters. The book appears on multiple best-of lists and has been praised by critics for its originality and emotional honesty.