Book Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here

“Not everyone has to be the Chosen One. Not everyone has to be the guy who saves the world.”

Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

Mike, Mel, Henna, and Jared live in a small town which, yes, does occasionally have to deal with vampires and soul-sucking ghosts - but that’s not their problem. They’re just trying to survive their last year of high school and graduate before the school gets blown up…again. They’re not the chosen ones, but that’s okay because normal life is already hard enough.

Read If You Liked: any book involving a "Chosen One"

My Thoughts:

This is such a unique concept for a book! So many popular series from Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter to Divergent have characters that were specially chosen for the paths they were put on; but what about the rest of the characters who have to deal with all the chaos, the ones that "just live there"? Patrick Ness answers that very question in this book.

I enjoyed this book and was pleasantly surprised with how well an idea like this was executed. It was not what I was expecting, though I can't really put my finger on why. Maybe it was just more serious than I expected it to be as it presents itself as a parody of sorts to the kinds of books mentioned above, though that is not to say that it wasn’t exceptionally funny and lighthearted at times. The book’s atmosphere is a strange mixture of melancholic and hopeful. I found the characters to be very relatable; and while that word is thrown around a lot, I genuinely mean it with this one. Mike, Mel, Henna, and Jared all felt like people I could meet in real life.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here focuses on very real topics alongside its more fanciful elements; topics like racism, sexuality, and absent parents that kids face every single day of their lives. Ness incorporates these topics into the lives of his four teenage main characters seamlessly and realistically. Aside from aforementioned topics, mental illness is also a huge focus in the book. Mike has OCD and struggles throughout the story to gain some kind of control over it. A scene in which he speaks to a therapist is one that I think is really helpful and impactful for those readers not only with OCD, but other anxiety disorders as well. His sister, Mel, also has anorexia, though I wish she had been focused on a little bit more. By having not only one character, but two main characters in his book struggling with mental illness, Ness is able to do an amazing job of portraying life with these maladies in a respectful and realistic way.

While I enjoyed this book and the characters in it, there were some aspects I liked better than others. Out of all the characters, Mike, the main character, was the one I liked least unfortunately. Also, the supernatural elements of the story took a bit of a backseat to me despite the fact that it seemed at first like they were going to play a much larger role. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. There was, of course, the whole “must save the world!” aspect but it was more like supernatural elements mixed in with every day life. I thought this was a fun twist as opposed to having the entire plot resting on whatever otherworldly event was taking place. Whether you are interested in this book for its realistic characters or for its less realistic fantasy, it will not disappoint. I am looking forward to reading more of Patrick Ness's work myself!