Book review: The Rest Of Us Just Live Here

Patrick Ness – The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Mike lives in a small American town like many others, grappling with normal teenage issues – will my dad ever stop drinking? Is my mom serious about running for political office? Is my older sister going to be okay as she continues recovering from her eating disorder? What’s my younger sister going to do when we leave for college? Will this girl ever love me? What will I do without my best friend nearby – the one person who knows how to help with my OCD loops?

So he’s got quite enough to deal with. But there are also the ‘indie kids’ – you know the ones. The ones with weird names, the ones who never seem to use the internet, the ones who are somehow always involved in whatever latest supernatural crisis is going on. Every few years, there’s something – and the adults just don’t talk about it. This time around, there are glowing blue eyes and indie kids dying or going missing – but Mike’s learned not to get involved.

This is a weird book in many ways – set in an incredibly urban-fantasy environment but rarely engaging with it, and sometimes that can feel frustrating for a reader. The opening of every chapter details what’s happening in the big save-the-world plot – featuring characters and storylines we only catch glimpses of as Mike and his friends just try to survive high school. I adored the premise of it, but wanted perhaps just a little bit more of the two worlds hitting off one another – not quite Buffy‘s ‘The Zeppo’, in which the ‘regular guy’ saves the day, but a few more interactions to remind us that these are teens who do live in a world that is not actually our own.

I also (spoiler alert) felt a little iffy about the handling of mental illness in the book: it’s generally done quite well, but then finishes with Mike rejecting the option of being ‘cured’ by a friend with new god-like powers, because conquering mental illness is about Character and Strength (whereas conquering physical illness is about Taking The Cure). It left me a little unsettled. But I did enjoy reading it, and the chapter-openers were marvellously snarky, and Mike’s voice is brilliantly teenage. One to read, but also to discuss.