The Rest of Us Just Live Here

I love this book if I could read it for the first time again I would.

I bet if you sent Ness out into the woods with a penny, a match, a hamster wheel, and a crumpled page from a 1988 telephone book, he'd come back in a week with a beautifully written book.

His words affect me. I'm always smitten.



Even when he is writing YA, I don't feel like I'm an adult reading about teens (even though that is more or less exactly what I am doing).
You know how there are those things in life you'd like to be a fly on the wall for? I'd like to be a fly on his brain (gross but true).

The cover says, "Sometimes you have to find the extraordinary in the ordinary."

There are small blurbs at the start of each chapter about extraordinary characters (referenced as "indie kids" by others) behind the scenes with powers that defend another realm. These blurbs are the high drama, high action, fast paced stories we've come to love and expect in our supernatural YA fiction. Our main characters, however, are (mostly) the ordinary kids. The ones that are their own little group in the school and not front and center. A group I could identify with. A group that that deals with relationships (small focus), friendship (large focus), anxiety, eating disorders, sexual orientation, parents (alcoholic, absent, political, religious), fear of the future, and being one-quarter God (I said mostly ordinary). I loved these characters. I even loved the main character, Mikey, who is obsessive, insecure, and a little bit whiny. He is a near reflection of myself, and I'm not even ashamed to admit it!



I was never bored, and I didn't find myself at a near gagging point the way I do when I read other popular YA authors (think John Green and the gang).

I love the humor.
Satchel goes into hiding at an abandoned drive-in with fellow indie kids Finn, Dylan, Finn, Finn, Lincoln, Archie, Wisconsin, Finn, Aquamarine, and Finn...

I love the insight.
Feelings don't try to kill you, even the painful ones. Anxiety is a feeling grown too large. A feeling grown aggressive and dangerous. You're responsible for its consequences, you're responsible for treating it. But Michael, you're not responsible for causing it. You're not morally at fault for it.
(NAILED IT.)

Beautiful Ness as always.

Everything's always ending. But everything's always beginning, too.


**Note about the author's note at the end: How cool is it that Ness auctioned off the change to have the winner's name in the book? Almost as cool as the name Henna Silvennoinen, which I had been admiring the whole way through.

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Expected publication: August 27th 2015



In the meantime, I'm going to write a letter. Something like:

Dear (Terrible, Horrible, Unreasonable) Release Date,



Sincerely-ish,
Natalie

Patrick Ness more like Patrick Yes because this book was yes yes yeeeeees. Characters/plot of this one didn't hook me quite as much as his usually do, but dammit if this isn't his funniest book so far. Could not stop myself giggling throughout (her name was SATCHEL.) The parody of the Chosen One genre (and YA in general) was nicely done, and the more serious emotional stuff was as honest and gritty as ever with Ness, if not quite as emotionally resonant, with me at least (which is a good thing - A Monster Calls and The Crane Wife have already kicked my heart in the balls this year, I needed the break tbh.) i just love this man's writing so damn much. Gah, Patrick Ness like. The man's just brilliant.