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The Rest Of Us Just Live Here
Jan. 18th, 2019 09:23 amI haven't had much luck with Patrick Ness novels in the past, but The Rest Of Us Just Live Here had such an enticing premise that I decided to give it a go. In a small American town, various supernatural threats have come and gone every few years, with certain high school students being the ones targeted and also the ones who fix the problem. In the present day of the novel, these are the 'indie kids', but the novel focuses on a different group of kids, who are on the periphery of the situation. They know something is going on, but it all happens away from their day-to-day lives and they're not 'special' enough to really be involved.
So, each chapter starts with a paragraph summary of what's going on with the indie kids and the invasion plans of The Immortals, and then the main narrative follows Mikey and his family and friends as they go about their days, dealing with their own issues.
It's very cleverly done and very funny in the way the indie kid summaries satirise traditional YA supernatural plots. But the main narrative is also extremely well written and emotive, with the ordinary struggles of teenagers having conflicts with their parents while dealing with school, prom, graduation, upcoming college and various mental health issues.
In particular, there's a whole chapter that charts one of Mikey's therapy sessions and has a lot of great things to say about mental illness, the stigma attached to it, and how it should be viewed as the same as any illness - ie no blame attached to the sufferer, medication not viewed as a failure in some way, etc.
Unfortunately, this important message is completely undermined by something that happens at the very end of the book, which is a real shame, and I don't understand why it was done like that.
Still, overall, I really enjoyed this book - it's funny and clever and affecting and shows lots of good things about the difficulties of being a teenager, as well as the importance of having good friends.
So, each chapter starts with a paragraph summary of what's going on with the indie kids and the invasion plans of The Immortals, and then the main narrative follows Mikey and his family and friends as they go about their days, dealing with their own issues.
It's very cleverly done and very funny in the way the indie kid summaries satirise traditional YA supernatural plots. But the main narrative is also extremely well written and emotive, with the ordinary struggles of teenagers having conflicts with their parents while dealing with school, prom, graduation, upcoming college and various mental health issues.
In particular, there's a whole chapter that charts one of Mikey's therapy sessions and has a lot of great things to say about mental illness, the stigma attached to it, and how it should be viewed as the same as any illness - ie no blame attached to the sufferer, medication not viewed as a failure in some way, etc.
Unfortunately, this important message is completely undermined by something that happens at the very end of the book, which is a real shame, and I don't understand why it was done like that.
Still, overall, I really enjoyed this book - it's funny and clever and affecting and shows lots of good things about the difficulties of being a teenager, as well as the importance of having good friends.
