BOOK REVIEW | THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE by Patrick Ness

Title: The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Author: Patrick Ness

Series or standalone: Standalone

Genre: Mature Young Adult Fantasy/Contemporary/It's impossible to describe haha

Publication Date: 27th August 2015

Format: Paperback ARC

Source: Publisher (Walker Books)

Goodreads

What if you weren’t the Chosen One?
What if you’re not the one who’s so often the hero in YA fiction; who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were 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 might just be the God of mountain lions...

Firstly I just want to say thank you to Walker Books for providing me with this ARC to read and review!

I think it's fair to say that Patrick Ness is a literary genius. I've read almost all of his published works and have loved every single one of them! The Rest of Us Just Live Here, however, is very different from not only his other books, but also anything I've ever read before! 

It's an extremely unique book that follows characters that aren't the 'chosen ones'. Each chapter starts off with a quick summary of what would have happened in the chapter if it was from the perspective of the chosen one of the story. However, this book follows a teenage boy and his friends who have absolutely nothing to do with the exciting paranormal freaky stuff that's happening. They just happen to live in this town where weird things happen to a certain group of kids and it follows them and how that affects their lives. So basically, it's like if Harry Potter was told from that random Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott. 

What I loved, not only about this book, but also Patrick Ness' other books, is his characters. They are always so expertly developed and realistic, no matter what the genre of the book is. I especially appreciated the incorporation of various mental illnesses that were portrayed and also the LGBTQ aspects! I think it's so important for characters to be shown with mental illnesses because it's just way too common for their not to be at least one character with a mental illness! The same goes for characters who are LGBTQ! I loved how Patrick Ness has characters like this, but it's NORMAL. Because it is normal in our society and that's how modern literature should portray characters! 

The storyline itself was really weird at first because it's so different and so it took me a little while to get into it and understand what the heck was going on, but the characters made the confusing period totally worth it because they were so rich, relatable and wonderfully written. 

Patrick Ness always has a way with words in all of his books and it just flows so effortlessly that the book just flew by for me! As I got more and more into the story, the more exciting it became and the more attached I was to these characters and their lives! It wasn't about the fantasy/paranormal stuff that was happening in the background. It was such a character driven novel, about them finding themselves and dealing with certain mental illnesses and family issues and their friendships and relationships. I loved how it almost read like a contemporary! 

That's all I'm going to say for now, as it hasn't been released yet, but I plan on filming a discussion video later on where I'll discuss spoilery things from the book! Make sure you go and pre-order this one because we all know Patrick Ness never disappoints!

I ended up giving this one 3 stars because it didn't have as big of an impact on me as the Chaos Walking trilogy but I still really liked it!