#CBR11 Review #07: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
I have only read one other novel by Patrick Ness before
(also of the YA variety) and did not like it very much, but I had heard good
things about The Rest of Us Just Live
Here and figured I should give it a shot: as it turns out I found this
novel be well worth the read. Despite involving some fantastical elements, these
magical components for the most part are only the background of the more
human-centric story which the book focuses; at it’s heart, this novel is a very
relatable story about figuring out life, love, and relationships during points
of change.
The Rest of Us Just
Live Here follows a teenage protagonist named Mikey during his last few
months in high-school. Mikey is dealing with a host of issues including the
thought of leaving home after graduation with his best friend, wondering about
his position in his group of friends trying to express his feelings towards a
friend within these last few months, worrying about his sister and her mental
health following issues with eating disorders that almost killed her in the
past, his mother and her relentless pursuit of power in politics, and his
fathers alcoholism. On top of all of this, Mikey and his anxieties manifest
themselves in the form of OCD loops of obsessive hand-washing, counting
corners, locking doors multiple times, etc. Oh, and of course we can also pile
on worries about staying alive and becoming collateral damage as the local “indie
kids” (a rip on YA “chosen one” stories and their young protagonists with often
goofy names or quirks) try and solve yet another attack on the town from some
mystical or unusual event that they only get the odd piece of information about.
Throughout the novel as we go through Mikey’s story, each chapter begins with a
little blurb about what is going on with the indie kids and the threat to the
town which would typically be the main plot in other novels, but here it is but
a conduit for everything else and the lives that continue around the big bads.
One of the strongest aspects of this novel is how the
characters unfold over time to show their complexities and own issues both
related to the underlying threat to their town, and those that are just simply
human. It felt at times that Mikey was maybe straying towards the realm of unlikeable,
but as far as characters go he is extremely believable in his teenage self-centered
view, and also is dealing with a lot of thoughts and anxieties that I myself
have (or am still currently) dealing with in my own life: I could totally understand
him and where he was coming from and honestly felt a little bit called-out like
Ness was pointing a finger directly at me while writing this.
The only things that I found to be a little lacking in this
novel are likely to do with the intended audience being young adults (though of
course this genre can take many many forms): that is, some of the conversations,
particularly those between Mikey and his therapist or his sister, felt a little
over-explanatory in a way. As well, a lot of things just seemed to fall into
place for a neat, lesson-learned ending. This, however, is saved by the fact
that though things are happy, it’s clear that there is still growing and
learning to be done, and maybe things don’t always end exactly how we want, but
this doesn’t mean that this is a bad thing. Oh, and it was a little weird how
much older Mikey’s sister’s boyfriend was than her considering how this meant
that even though she was… 18? 19? It still meant he was just hanging out with a
bunch of teenagers and, I don’t know but maybe I’m just nitpicking considering
how this was really not the main focus of the whole thing.
But overall, I found The
Rest of Us Just Live Here to be definitely a good read, even if just to see
the story of an impending apocalypse/invasion that can only be stopped by one particularly
special teenager from the point of view of someone else who isn’t directly
involved but, well, lives there. Because honestly, I personally haven’t read
anything from that kind of angle before, and in this case it was worth checking
out.
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