Item: More Than This
Rating: 5.00
Author: divaboooknerd

by Patrick Ness

From two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick Ness comes an enthralling and provocative new novel
chronicling the life – or perhaps afterlife – of a teen trapped in a crumbling, abandoned world.

A boy called Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he is here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighbourhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust and completely abandoned. What's going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this...

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2013/10/more-than-this-by-patrick-ness.html
Thank you to Walker Books.

If I could use one word to describe More Than This, it would be phenomenal. This was my introduction to Patrick Ness and I can't believe I've waited so long to experience his brilliance. The story is a young adult post apocalyptic, science fiction thriller that places the reader in Seth's world, and what a frightening world that is. The plot is intricate and well paced, creating a vivid landscape of desolation and isolation. Seth is a brilliant and well developed character who carries the weight of his family on his shoulders and it seems as though he may have been the only one, his mother especially having blamed Seth for what is clearly her own mistake. Through Seth's dreams, we see glimpses of his circle of friends, and the life of a teen in love, but is scared to tell the world.

I absolutely loved Tomasz, or Tommy as he is affectionately known. The small Polish immigrant holds the group of three unlikely allies together. He's experienced the hardest life of them all, but with his broken English, slightly off kilter phrasing and antidotes, he adds a lightness and comedy to the storyline, which breaks up the intensity.

More Than This is the type of book to ruin you for all others. Patrick Ness has constructed a story so masterful that both teen and young adult readers will be blown away.

More Than This

by Patrick Ness

Reviewed by Kelly on Oct 25, 2013

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