The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

I forgot about this one from the summer, but I have no idea how.  How do you forget about a book as weird, as crazy, and as entertaining as The Alex Crow?  In typical Andrew Smith fashion, he gives the reader a story that involves many different characters in many different places, and in the case of this story, even different time periods.  What he does so well is bring all of those things together in a way that is funny, thrilling, heartbreaking, and heartwarming all at the same time.  I can't say I have ever read anything from Andrew Smith that I didn't just enjoy immensely. 

From Amazon:

“Andrew Smith is the Kurt Vonnegut of YA . . . [Smith’s novels] are the freshest, richest, and weirdest books to hit the YA world in years.” —Entertainment Weekly

Skillfully blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, award-winning Grasshopper Jungle author Andrew Smith chronicles the story of Ariel, a refugee who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel's story is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century . . . and a depressed, bionic reincarnated crow.