More Than This
by Patrick Ness
Publication: 10th September 2013
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 480
Genre: Dystopian/Science Fiction
Age Appropriate: Young Adult
From two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick Ness comes an enthralling and provocative new novel chronicling the life — or perhaps afterlife — of a teen trapped in a crumbling, abandoned world.
A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .
A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .
My Thoughts.
More Than This is a new book from Patrick Ness, the author of the Chaos Walking trilogy which I still need to read and that I've heard great things about.
I'm unsure exactly how to write this review, after sleeping on it I still don't know whether I liked it or disliked it or whether or not I actually understood it at all, add in the ending which I thought ended at the wrong point for a book which as far as I'm aware is a stand-alone, I wanted to know what happened at the end with Seth, I don't like using my imagination to come up with my own version of an ending, I'd rather the author does it because isn't that what we're reading the book for? To tell us what happened not the other way around.
The plot is initially what drew me in to wanting to pick this book up, it sounded like a really intriguing dystopian (which I love), and it started of that way and I was really into it and then it changed genres, into what I'm not exactly sure and that's when the confusion started.
I don't know if I can really write what I'm wandering about with the twist without completely wrecking the story, I'll guess it'll be something I'll be left pondering, unfortunately for me I was left with a few unanswered questions that may never be answered.
Although I did like the supporting characters introduced later on in the book, I felt that Seth was dealt a raw deal in life and it was just depressing, all he wanted in life was to feel wanted which after the tragedy that happened to his family while traumatic, it was like his family just ignored his existence and he was nothing but an afterthought, add in the whole Gudmann relationship and I can understand why and how he ended up where he did at the start of the book.
I wish that I enjoyed this book as much as I thought I would, but for me I think I built it up in my head and it didn't quite get there.
I give this 3/5 Stars.
Patrick Ness, an award-winning novelist, has written for England’s Radio 4 and Sunday Telegraph and is a literary critic for The Guardian. He has written many books, including the Chaos Walking Trilogy,The Crash of Hennington, Topics About Which I Know Nothing, and A Monster Calls.
He has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Born in Virginia, he currently lives in London.
He has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Born in Virginia, he currently lives in London.
Website: http://www.patrickness.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Patrick_Ness
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