The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a fantastic YA novel by Patrick Ness. The premise of the story is so interesting as Ness didn’t want to write a story focusing centrally upon the ‘Chosen One’ (someone who is selected to fight off the supernatural beings), but instead focuses upon Mikey and his friends, a group of normal teenagers just waiting to graduate high school. Having already dealt with vampires and the undead Mikey’s small town now faces the threat of the Immortals which are left to the indie kids (the chosen ones) to resolve.
Rather than focus the entire story on the indie kids and their fight with the Immortals, their story is told simply in short paragraphs at the start of each chapter, dedicating the rest of the novel to Mikey and his friends as they watch the fight from the background never getting involved.
I loved the idea of this novel focusing rather on the real life aspect and leaving the fantasy in the background so it was never at the fore front of the story. I thought this was such an unusual and creative idea that has never been seen in the YA genre before. Like his other novels Ness includes a range of diverse characters as well as focusing upon real life issues such as the struggle with OCD, eating disorders and absent parents. The relationships between the characters are so apparent within the novel and you can see the love each of them has for one another, even if they don’t see it at times.
Patrick Ness is one of my all time favourite authors and I’m never disappointed by any of his novels, particularly this one which has proved to be one of my favourites. Once picking it up I wasn’t able to put it down, reading it over the course of the weekend as I simply enjoyed it so much. It featured the humour, the sadness and the creativeness featured in any of Ness’ novels. If you’re looking for a book that isn’t like anything you’ve read before then I highly recommend The Rest of Us Just Live Here or any other of Patrick Ness’ novels.
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Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
