More Than This

by Patrick Ness

“Haven’t you ever felt like there has to be more? Like there’s more out there somewhere, just beyond your grasp, if you could only get to it?”

“There’s peace to be found in doing something for yourself.”

I’m going to be killed, he thinks, by a PIG. In HELL. And the thought is so stupidly outrageous, so insanely angry-making, that he almost misses the chance to save himself.

“Are you serious? Real life is only ever just real life. Messy. What it means depends on how you look at it. The only thing you’ve got to do is find a way to live there.”

Here is the boy, the man, here is Seth, being laid back gently into his coffin, the hands of his friends guiding him into place. He’s uncertain what’s going to happen next. But he is certain that that’s actually the point. If this is all a story, then that’s what the story means. If it isn’t a story, then the exact same is true.