Book Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here

The Rest of Us Just Live Here 

By: Patrick Ness

Publication date: October 6, 2015

352 pages

Publisher: HarperTeen

Source: ARC provided by publisher

Audience: YA Contemporary/fantasy

Buy it at Amazon, Indiebound, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble

I had never read a Patrick Ness book before this one. I know: crazy, right? But when I got the opportunity to read this ARC, I was really excited. I get the feeling this is not his typical genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

This book is written from Mike's POV, or Mikey as he is mostly referred to in the book. He is one of the "normal" kids. A normal human who is watching from the sidelines when all the supernatural stuff starts happening around town. It's always the "indie" kids who deal with the vampires, ghosts, immortals, or whatever paranormal being is blowing up the school on any given day. The rest of the kids just live there. And this is their story.

Each chapter begins with a little blurb about the Indie kids and how they are dealing with the current paranormal situation. Then Mikey continues on with his narration about the lives of his group of friends, trying to navigate their way through the last couple of months of their senior year of high school. They all come from dysfunctional families with their own sets of problems. Mikey is OCD, his sister almost died from anorexia while his mom was running for Lt. Governor, and his best friend Jared is 1/4 God (yes - his grandmother was a Goddess), a football player, and gay. 

Patrick Ness did a great job of capturing the reality of emotional high school issues while adding in humor and the supernatural. It was interesting to think about the fact that "normal" people probably aren't as oblivious to supernatural goings-on as some might think. 

My favorite character was Mikey. I truly felt for him and his OCD/anxiety issues. He and his sister really watched out for each other, and for their youngest sister, Meredith. Whereas I originally thought the adults were completely oblivious to what was happening, it was nice to see some compassion and concern from them for their children. 

As I mentioned before, I don't believe this is the typical genre for Patrick Ness. But for me, it was a great place to start for reading one of his novels. I was entertained the whole way through. It had great humor, but also some serious topics that made me think. I appreciate some variety - a little romance, a touch of mystery, and I'm a happy reader!

Summary:

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.