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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
What this book is about:
Mike, his sister Mel and his two other friends Henna (his crush) and Jared (the God of Felines) are not indie kids. What does that mean? Well, Harry, Ron and Hermione would be the indie kids in Hogwards and Neville Longbottom, Lee Jordan or Seamus Finnigan would be the non-indie kids. We all know Harry et al. but not many of us know the others (except maybe for Neville, but you get the point). This group just wants to graduate and live their normal, ordinary lives, while the indie kids get into trouble with the Immortals who, of course, as any villain or paranormal force, want to dominate earth.
Patrick Ness has some very obvious, specific characteristics in his writing style which I found in this book, too, like his other works (e.g. repeating a small sentence two or three times for effect, male protagonist, including a scenes of nudism etc.). But unlike his other novels and books, this one confused me. If you are like me, knowing that Ness can create awesomeness, then you are probably expecting something pretty amazing to happen in this book or at least that this book will speak to you. Well, it might speak to you..but to me it didn't really. It was kind of a normal, ordinary contemporary novel only with some blending elements of fantasy and paranormal.
At the beginning of each chapter we get a paragraph in which we are informed about what the indie kids are doing. It's basically a back story of the battle with the Immortals. But then we follow our four characters in their everyday lives. Maybe that was the point? That our ordinary characters will have an ordinary life and we should expect the amazing and awesome thing to happen to them? I don't know. The story confused me.
What I did really enjoy was first of all the relationship of Mike and Mel and their sister Meredith. Ness also dedicated this book to his sister and in my opinion he created a beautiful relationship among the three siblings. I haven't found that in many books.
Another thing I enjoyed was the relationship between Jared and Mike and Henna and Mike. The connection between the characters is captured in a very realistic light. It's not forced and it's not too much.
Finally, I think Ness tried to pass a message throughout this book that we shouldn't just things too quickly; not everything ends up being what it initially looks or sounds like. That's a strong message and I liked the way that Ness presented it.
I could say that I was "expecting" greatness because... it's Patrick Ness, but I am not disappointed. This book was well-written and constructed with humour but also sadness and with strong messages.
Mike, his sister Mel and his two other friends Henna (his crush) and Jared (the God of Felines) are not indie kids. What does that mean? Well, Harry, Ron and Hermione would be the indie kids in Hogwards and Neville Longbottom, Lee Jordan or Seamus Finnigan would be the non-indie kids. We all know Harry et al. but not many of us know the others (except maybe for Neville, but you get the point). This group just wants to graduate and live their normal, ordinary lives, while the indie kids get into trouble with the Immortals who, of course, as any villain or paranormal force, want to dominate earth.
Patrick Ness has some very obvious, specific characteristics in his writing style which I found in this book, too, like his other works (e.g. repeating a small sentence two or three times for effect, male protagonist, including a scenes of nudism etc.). But unlike his other novels and books, this one confused me. If you are like me, knowing that Ness can create awesomeness, then you are probably expecting something pretty amazing to happen in this book or at least that this book will speak to you. Well, it might speak to you..but to me it didn't really. It was kind of a normal, ordinary contemporary novel only with some blending elements of fantasy and paranormal.
At the beginning of each chapter we get a paragraph in which we are informed about what the indie kids are doing. It's basically a back story of the battle with the Immortals. But then we follow our four characters in their everyday lives. Maybe that was the point? That our ordinary characters will have an ordinary life and we should expect the amazing and awesome thing to happen to them? I don't know. The story confused me.
What I did really enjoy was first of all the relationship of Mike and Mel and their sister Meredith. Ness also dedicated this book to his sister and in my opinion he created a beautiful relationship among the three siblings. I haven't found that in many books.
Another thing I enjoyed was the relationship between Jared and Mike and Henna and Mike. The connection between the characters is captured in a very realistic light. It's not forced and it's not too much.
Spoiler
Another thing I would like to mention is that, as a Psychology student, I think Ness did a very good job portraying Mike at the therapist's office during their session. On the other hand, I haven't found many books which present the psychologist in a proper manner. With that I mean that therapists should refrain from speaking in a specific way which is quite hard to capture in a book. This novel didn't do a good job in this part, in my opinion. The therapist said some very wrong things which could have been avoided by a professional.Finally, I think Ness tried to pass a message throughout this book that we shouldn't just things too quickly; not everything ends up being what it initially looks or sounds like. That's a strong message and I liked the way that Ness presented it.
I could say that I was "expecting" greatness because... it's Patrick Ness, but I am not disappointed. This book was well-written and constructed with humour but also sadness and with strong messages.
okay i read this when i was like maybe 12 years old and i remember really liking it but the only scene i remember is the one where mikey couldn't stop washing his hands at the restaurant so jared stopped him by hugging him. so anyways i listened to the audiobook this time and i really did not remember ANYTHING else about the story but honestly i think this holds up pretty well 10 years on!!!! i liked it a lot even if there was some stuff that made me say. hmm. but i do really love the premise and i love the part at the beginning of each chapter where we hear what the indie kids are up to
This was my first Patrick Ness novel and despite it didn't blow away mi mind, I ended up quite enjoying it.
My favorite thing about this book was the concept. Because of course after reading all of this fantastic and epic stories, where the young hero saves the world, we all want to be that hero, we all want to save the world,all want to be The One and Only.
But life is not like that. What Patrick Ness does in this book, is showing us that being a Chosen One is first of all a rare thing second of all do not mean that you are not as extraordinary as the Chosen Ones.
This book deals with ordinary people and they ordinary days. They have their own problems: graduation, prom, dates, unrequited love and they just try to live their lives in the shadow of the Chosen Ones and their adventures.
I really-really adored the fact that there was such a thin parody of the typical Chose One genre. How annoying could it be for example to be a schoolmate of Harry Potter, when something always happens, and whether you want it or not you are dragged into the actions(for example not being the best house just because Dumbledore felt like it, and 50 point plus Gryffindor? ) Maybe my favorite was the story about girls falling in love with vampires, and then trying to deal with the consequences.
Still the main theme were not the indie kids. The main characters could've been just you or me, the boring, yet so unique people. Patrick Ness does his work incredibly well, showing us how important our simple, sometimes boring life is, how much does it mean to others, how much should it mean to us.
Also one plus point for the beautiful dealing with mental health problems. You know how this topic is quite a popular one right now? I hate when some books just throw it in your face on every single chapter, and just do not come up with some kind of advice. Patrick embedded in his story a lot of things: OCD, anorexia, lack of self-esteem,and did it so amazingly well that I just can't find the words.
It showed me how important friendships are, how hard it is to be the broken one in the group, how good it is that there are people who are ready to fix you.
After all: a good book that left me in some really light kind of place where all there is around me is hapiness and safety.
P.s. Also the kind of short stories about the indie kids? How cool were they? Would love to have a book dedicated entirely to that story! :) "wink-wink Patrick Ness, wink-wink"
My favorite thing about this book was the concept. Because of course after reading all of this fantastic and epic stories, where the young hero saves the world, we all want to be that hero, we all want to save the world,all want to be The One and Only.
But life is not like that. What Patrick Ness does in this book, is showing us that being a Chosen One is first of all a rare thing second of all do not mean that you are not as extraordinary as the Chosen Ones.
This book deals with ordinary people and they ordinary days. They have their own problems: graduation, prom, dates, unrequited love and they just try to live their lives in the shadow of the Chosen Ones and their adventures.
I really-really adored the fact that there was such a thin parody of the typical Chose One genre. How annoying could it be for example to be a schoolmate of Harry Potter, when something always happens, and whether you want it or not you are dragged into the actions(for example not being the best house just because Dumbledore felt like it, and 50 point plus Gryffindor? ) Maybe my favorite was the story about girls falling in love with vampires, and then trying to deal with the consequences.
Still the main theme were not the indie kids. The main characters could've been just you or me, the boring, yet so unique people. Patrick Ness does his work incredibly well, showing us how important our simple, sometimes boring life is, how much does it mean to others, how much should it mean to us.
Also one plus point for the beautiful dealing with mental health problems. You know how this topic is quite a popular one right now? I hate when some books just throw it in your face on every single chapter, and just do not come up with some kind of advice. Patrick embedded in his story a lot of things: OCD, anorexia, lack of self-esteem,and did it so amazingly well that I just can't find the words.
It showed me how important friendships are, how hard it is to be the broken one in the group, how good it is that there are people who are ready to fix you.
After all: a good book that left me in some really light kind of place where all there is around me is hapiness and safety.
P.s. Also the kind of short stories about the indie kids? How cool were they? Would love to have a book dedicated entirely to that story! :) "wink-wink Patrick Ness, wink-wink"
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Rest of Us Just Live Here has interesting concept, about kids who aren't the Chosen Ones in a town full of indie kids who are often the Chosen Ones, but I'm not sure how much I liked the execution of the premise. I definitely liked the idea of the book more than what I actually ended up reading. However, fans of Patrick Ness should probably read this book because it just seems so different from anything else that Ness has written about before. This book reads like [b:The Perks of Being a Wallflower|22628|The Perks of Being a Wallflower|Stephen Chbosky|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1167352178s/22628.jpg|2236198] written by Patrick Ness, with a dash of some supernatural events happening in the background.
Mikey isn't a Chosen One and he's perfectly fine with that. Chosen Ones are often indie kids who end up facing zombies or ghosts and who endanger their lives just for the sake of the "greater good" and Mikey doesn't think that it's worth it. He's content with his life, with his circle of friends which includes his older sister Mel, his best friend Jared and his crush Henna. All he wants to do is to graduate high school without a mishap, to attend prom with his friends and to figure out how to navigate through his life without his obsessive counting messing things up for him.
Based on this description, I think you can tell that the book is a lot more interested in a coming-of-age story rather than whatever Chosen One story is happening in the background. It's about Mikey and his issues, be it feeling like he always come in last in his group of friends or about his family, with an absent, alcoholic father and an ambitious mother who seems destined for a bigger political future than his family is prepared for. But each chapter begins with the Chosen One's story, which was kinda amusing at first since it seemed like satire but the conceit gradually wore off. This is because the Chosen One's story really does seem like a disparate story that's being shoved into the start of each chapter to explain all the blue lights and strange stuff that's happening in the background.
Furthermore, from Mikey's narration we know that their small town has seen its share of Chosen One stories in each generation. So I find it difficult to understand when none of the adults seem outwardly concerned about all the blue lights and teenage deaths that were occuring in the span of the book.
Despite these problems that I had with the book's execution, I did think that Jared and Henna were well-written characters. Henna, outside of whatever relationship she has with Mikey, is dealing with some tough problems of her own. Henna's story is about a girl left behind, after her brother joined the Chosen Ones in their previous battle and I thought that the effect that this had on her family and her psyche was nuancedly written. Jared, meanwhile, has a complicated parentage and an uneasy time figuring out his own sexuality and he is struggling with his identity and what he is destined for. Jared was easily my favorite character out of the book.
Mikey isn't a Chosen One and he's perfectly fine with that. Chosen Ones are often indie kids who end up facing zombies or ghosts and who endanger their lives just for the sake of the "greater good" and Mikey doesn't think that it's worth it. He's content with his life, with his circle of friends which includes his older sister Mel, his best friend Jared and his crush Henna. All he wants to do is to graduate high school without a mishap, to attend prom with his friends and to figure out how to navigate through his life without his obsessive counting messing things up for him.
Based on this description, I think you can tell that the book is a lot more interested in a coming-of-age story rather than whatever Chosen One story is happening in the background. It's about Mikey and his issues, be it feeling like he always come in last in his group of friends or about his family, with an absent, alcoholic father and an ambitious mother who seems destined for a bigger political future than his family is prepared for. But each chapter begins with the Chosen One's story, which was kinda amusing at first since it seemed like satire but the conceit gradually wore off. This is because the Chosen One's story really does seem like a disparate story that's being shoved into the start of each chapter to explain all the blue lights and strange stuff that's happening in the background.
Furthermore, from Mikey's narration we know that their small town has seen its share of Chosen One stories in each generation. So I find it difficult to understand when none of the adults seem outwardly concerned about all the blue lights and teenage deaths that were occuring in the span of the book.
Spoiler
It's all explained away blasely that the adults don't seem to think that these things can happen again, because of their distance from teenagehood or something like that... But I don't buy it because these adults could have kids now and surely they should be worried about what's going on? And surely whatever they knew or saw as teenagers should have greater impact on them, leaving some kind of emotional resonance?Despite these problems that I had with the book's execution, I did think that Jared and Henna were well-written characters. Henna, outside of whatever relationship she has with Mikey, is dealing with some tough problems of her own. Henna's story is about a girl left behind, after her brother joined the Chosen Ones in their previous battle and I thought that the effect that this had on her family and her psyche was nuancedly written. Jared, meanwhile, has a complicated parentage and an uneasy time figuring out his own sexuality and he is struggling with his identity and what he is destined for. Jared was easily my favorite character out of the book.
Spoiler
And in a strange twist, like Jared says, he is probably the most likely to a Chosen One in a book filled with "ordinary" characters.
Kitaba başlamadan önce konusunu bilmiyordum ama young adult/ fantastic bir eser olduğunu görmüştüm. Uzun süredir bu tarz bir kitap okumadığım için beklentim aşırı düşüktü. Ama kesinlikle beklediğimden daha farklı bir kitap çıktı. Birazcık kitaptan bahsetmek isterim. Her bölüm başında “indie çocukların” o bölümde yaşadığı olaylarla ilgili bir paragraf var. İlk bölümlerde “ne alaka?” olmuştum ama kısa sürede (çok da kısa sayılmaz) hikayenin akışını yakalayabildim. Bütün bu fantastik akışın dışında normal bir hayat yaşayan normal liseli gençlerin hikayelerini okuyoruz. Etrafında ilginç olaylar olan bu gençler “indie çocuklar” gibi dünyayı kurtarmak yerine kendi sorunlarıyla uğraşıyor. Sanırım kendimi yetersiz bulduğum , main karakter olmadığımı iddia ettiğim bu dönemlerde benim için bir comfort book oldu. Ayrıca Yabancı yayınlarının kapak tasarımını da çokça sevdim. Bence şans verilmesi gereken bir kitap.
i hated it while i was reading it, but after I was done i understood what kind of masterpiece this book really is
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a fantastic standalone!
I liked the sarcastic tone the author used in the writing and the way the personality of the MC shone through. It had a great balance of seriousness and goofiness, which made the story lighthearted at times but also surprised me with serious modern problems that teens and adults are struggling with themselves.
I liked the sarcastic tone the author used in the writing and the way the personality of the MC shone through. It had a great balance of seriousness and goofiness, which made the story lighthearted at times but also surprised me with serious modern problems that teens and adults are struggling with themselves.
The therapy session was especially great to me. It explained the mental health problem of the MC thoroughly and gave actually meaningful pointers from the therapist for anybody who might be going through a similar problem. I thought that was well done by the author.
I also liked that I actually got two stories in just one book. The short summaries at the start had me laughing so much—it was amazing. It was these parts especially that kept the story lighthearted and gave a fun twist to the usual ‘hero’ story that so many other books focus on.
Lastly, the characters themselves were very complex, and it felt like they had their own lives besides helping the MC, which made them more three-dimensional and well-rounded. I liked the acknowledgment at the end that explained the names of two of the characters. I thought that was a fun little addition.