Children's booksChildren's books This article is more than 8 years oldThe Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness – review
This article is more than 8 years old‘The dialogue is sharp and entertaining - it is sometimes easy to forget that this is a work of fiction’
From the author of the brilliant Chaos Walking trilogy comes an original, engaging story about endings, new beginnings and making meaning out of life. With flawed yet loveable characters and funny dialogue, it was intriguing from start to finish and completely unlike anything I’ve ever read before.
The novel follows the central character, Mikey, and his friends in the final weeks before their high school graduation. They live in a world not unlike our own, except that in the past there have been supernatural events that most people have ignored and forgotten about. This novel centres on the people who don’t save or destroy the world, the people who aren’t the chosen ones, who don’t get into epic battles with fierce monsters. It’s about the people in the background, the lookers-on, the ones who are too preoccupied with their ordinary yet complex lives to worry too much about the zombie deer they saw on the road last night. This might have made for an uneventful read – however, I am happy to say that this is not the case. Ness’s characters are brilliantly real and their story, while unremarkable on the surface, has an underlying message about love, friendship and enjoying your life. I normally hate books with ‘messages’ (and I know some people may be groaning after reading that last sentence!) but it definitely works for The Rest of Us Just Live Here and it doesn’t seem like a cliche or forced message.
Credit must go to Patrick Ness for tackling the difficult issue of mental illness. Though not an uncommon theme in other Young Adult novels, I feel like mental illness is often romanticised or dominates the plot to an extent that the novel has a negative message. This book is different. I feel it shows mental illness without being completely a story about mental illness and also explored the way people recover from it. Mikey has OCD and often worries about being the least wanted of his friends, a feeling I’m sure that many teens will relate to, while his sister Mel has nearly died battling anorexia.
I absolutely loved all the characters in this book and I especially loved the relationship between Mikey and his sisters. They always try to include their younger sister, Meredith, instead of complaining about how annoying she is and Mikey and Mel always support each other and listen to each other’s anxieties. Their friends, Jared and Henna, are drawn with strokes of detail that bring them to life and I was happy that the author had included characters of diverse cultures and sexuality.
This is one of the first books to make me laugh in a long time and one of my favourite things about it is the way that Patrick Ness parodies the “chosen one” genre, probably because I get sick of formulaic plot lines that feature teens toppling tyrants, fighting monsters and saving the world. Each chapter begins with a short description of what the ‘indie kids’ are doing to defeat the mysterious enemy, the Immortals, while our characters are simply hoping that they won’t blow up the high school before they graduate. The dialogue is sharp and entertaining - it is sometimes easy to forget that this is a work of fiction.
With compelling writing and light moments and dark, this book definitely lived up to my sky-high expectations of Patrick Ness. It made me smile at least once in every chapter and I actually missed the characters after I finished reading it. I think that almost all teens will be able to relate to it in some way and I would highly recommend it whether you’re a Patrick Ness fan or not.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
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