Title: More Than ThisI have a very specific list of existential anxieties and More Than This checks off all of the boxes. This is one crazy messed up book and had me freaking out on countless occassions - so much so I had to put it down for a day before I could bring myself to read it again.
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: Sci-Fi
Warnings: death, suicide, child abuse, life after death
Rating: 4 stars
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It's about a boy named Seth who drowns and dies, then wakes up perfectly unharmed in an abandoned world. Seth has landed in his own personal hell, and it is only by searching through the blur of his past memories that he can learn why he wound up there, and if there truly is anything more after death.
This book starts of in a very specific way - one that only an author like Ness can handle so well before completely turning it on it's head. You need to go in with an open mind and next to no knowledge about the plot, and I can guarantee you won't see what's coming.
The writing is really beautiful - some of the best I've seen from Ness. But I think the writing style goes hand in hand with the book's concept. Each book Ness writes is worlds different and are all still so original, it's sometimes hard to believe it's all written by the same person. But what I also love about that is that going into one of his books you never know what to expect, and this could not be more true of More Than This.
I've got to say that although I was obsessed with this book, there were a couple of things near the end that I feel didn't need to happen - or maybe I just didn't understand why they happened? I'm not sure. I loved everything but those one or two chapters threw me off - and one specific event that no matter how I think about it does not make any sense to me. I think I could have been content with the story ending about 50 pages earlier and it would've still worked.
But then again that is just me, and I'm picky. And I don't want anyone reading this to be deterred by that fact - this is an excellent book and one I think everyone should read (or at least everyone who isn't like me and freaks out easily). But yeah. I've got to quote John Green here - "just read it".
Diversity note: gay protagonist
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