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emory's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I'm not sure how much of my feelings about this book are because of me and how much of them are because of the writing itself. I definitely went into this super blind, and was not expecting the whole 'surprise! we're in the matrix!' development, and I wasn't fond of that direction for the plot. It made me drag my feet continuing to read it. That part's on me, though, as it says on every online review page that it's science fiction and young adult.
It does tie in to one of my main complaints about the book, though. The prose was alright, if trying too hard to sound like slam poetry at times, but the plot could not seem to make up it's mind about whether to lean into the speculative science fiction or a poetic reflection. We never get enough explanation about the former and never enough exploration into the latter, which leads to a lackluster ending and grandiose conclusions without the writing effort to back it up.
Seth's constant questioning of reality serves no purpose except a wink wink nod to the fact that we're reading a book and to provide a convenient ending. An ending in which the main revelation, "life means never knowing what we're doing", a personally dissatisfying platitude, never gets any thoughtful prose dedicated to it and leaves even more questions for the reader. Maybe life is meant to leave major unanswered questions, but I'm unconvinced that a narrative should.
Not to mention that the book doesn't even really hold up it's title. Towards the end, when the characters start to be shoehorned into their philosophical chit chat, Seth has a revelation about his suicidal ideation and how he feels about his life. The problem is that none of the discussion about what life means and what is left for them makes much sense. It's a commendable effort, and I'm not trying to say it's a horrible book or that I hated reading it; however, the conclusions have nothing to back them up. The characters talk in circles about the meaning of life. We get no justification about why Tomasz and Regine don't get the kind of "more" that Seth seems confident he will be able to find. Even the sweet little moment about friendship has little to nothing to back it up; they've known each other for about 3 days, and have been fighting for most of it. But suddenly they have a wonderful revelation that their amazing friendship is the point of life? That the broken world they live in isn't awful? .
Again, I don't have all negative things to say about this book. The plot was enjoyable--just a bit empty. The writing was a bit ornate at points, but it was fitting for the hopelessness innate to the main character at points. The descriptions were theatric and vivid, and to be able to hold attention while the entire first part of the book is a single character living in an empty wasteland is no small feat.
Mainly, I just wish More Than This had had more.
It does tie in to one of my main complaints about the book, though. The prose was alright, if trying too hard to sound like slam poetry at times, but the plot could not seem to make up it's mind about whether to lean into the speculative science fiction or a poetic reflection. We never get enough explanation about the former and never enough exploration into the latter, which leads to a lackluster ending and grandiose conclusions without the writing effort to back it up.
Not to mention that the book doesn't even really hold up it's title. Towards the end, when the characters start to be shoehorned into their philosophical chit chat, Seth has a revelation about his suicidal ideation and how he feels about his life. The problem is that none of the discussion about what life means and what is left for them makes much sense. It's a commendable effort, and I'm not trying to say it's a horrible book or that I hated reading it; however, the conclusions have nothing to back them up. The characters talk in circles about the meaning of life. We get no justification about why Tomasz and Regine don't get the kind of "more" that Seth seems confident he will be able to find. Even the sweet little moment about friendship has little to nothing to back it up; they've known each other for about 3 days, and have been fighting for most of it. But suddenly they have a wonderful revelation that their amazing friendship is the point of life? That the broken world they live in isn't awful?
Again, I don't have all negative things to say about this book. The plot was enjoyable--just a bit empty. The writing was a bit ornate at points, but it was fitting for the hopelessness innate to the main character at points. The descriptions were theatric and vivid, and to be able to hold attention while the entire first part of the book is a single character living in an empty wasteland is no small feat.
Mainly, I just wish More Than This had had more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child death, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Outing, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Grief, Abandonment, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Fatphobia
A black character on a few occasions voices something fatphobic or antiblack she expects the other characters to say to her, even though ostensibly this doesn't need to be in the narrative at all, so that's a weird choice on the authors part. Additionally this is definitely not something to read if you're not in the headspace to deal with something akin to simulation theory or that the world is fake.vthecreature's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This started out slow but great. The mystery, the tension, the surprise when it suddenly turned out that there were other people in the world . As an enjoyer of mystery and soft sci-fi I was a bit disappointed when certain truths were revealed. However after seeing another reviewer’s statement that this book is almost a decade old, I kinda forgave it for that.
I didn’t see some of the smaller plot twists coming such as Gudmund sleeping with Monica or Seth choosing to give Owen to the escaped convict (that made me GASP) but unfortunately I quickly predicted one of the biggest plot twists ( Owen being dead the whole time. There was just too much foreshadowing. )
The characters weren’t super complex, the ending lacked resolution to MANY questions, but in a frustrating way rather than a mysterious one , and there was a bit too much explicit explanation for what and why the characters were feeling. In conclusion, this was pretty good, great by 2013 standards, just not my cup of tea at the moment.
I didn’t see some of the smaller plot twists coming such as
The characters weren’t super complex,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Outing, Suicide, and Blood
Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Body horror, and Child death
Minor: Racism, Body shaming, Sexual content, and Bullying
Kidnappingbananzabean's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Slow to read, it took a while to get going and even then it was never super fast paced or anything. The flashbacks are definitely the best part. I don’t think I would recommend this book to people who weren’t big readers. I do like how the book wraps up though - very intentional and wraps up the story nicely. I think the weakest part of the book for me was the mystery. Not because it was bad, but because I have seen other books deal with the sci-fi / online world trope better and to greater effect. I think this is probably my fault for reading this book a decade after it came out. I am probably just ranking it unfairly against more modern books. Unfortunately there are some really cool modern books nowadays that deal with these topics and so this book can seem a bit weak in comparison.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
sleepykatz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Suicide, Cursing, and Child abuse
Minor: Fatphobia, Child death, Homophobia, Body shaming, and Murder
phoehems's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Ok so the beginning was very interesting. Sometimes a bit repetitive, but intriguing. There was no one for Seth to interact with for a big chunk of the beginning. And that was interesting. The flashbacks/dreams were also very well written.
Regine and Tomasz are amazing. They are deep interesting characters. Regine's personality keeps you guessing about her background. Tomasz is just so endearing. All the characters have tragic backstories.
This book is literally the Matrix. On a basic level, the Driver is the robots etc, 'real life' is Zion, Regine and Seth... Trinity and Neo? Does that make Tomasz Morpheus? Anyway, there's nothing in this story that I didn't 'know' from the Matrix. Yet somehow I still didn't know what was going to happen next. Well written!
Regine and Tomasz are amazing. They are deep interesting characters. Regine's personality keeps you guessing about her background. Tomasz is just so endearing. All the characters have tragic backstories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Vomit, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Alcoholism
armontheroad's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
5.0
Patrick Ness never misses! I went into this not knowing anything, and I’m so glad I did. After figuring out this is not just a hard-hitting contemporary novel, my reading experience just got better and better. This was gut-wrenching and beautiful. I loved our main characters, the apocalyptic setting, and the ending. Everything about this was great! Wish I had known the content warnings beforehand because this book was graphic, although it was all handled well. I will say, it made me slightly uncomfortable the way one of our characters was written, however, it is not my voice you should be listening to when it comes to that rep. I highly implore you to go look at reviews from Black readers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Car accident, Child abuse, and Murder
leahisreading's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Child abuse, and Murder
Minor: Violence
alice17bex's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Murder, Child death, and Child abuse
eve_o's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
What just happened?? What? I don’t even know how to process this, I was on board until the middle.
this had so much potential to be cool if it just got proofread a bit and maybe didn’t steal the plot twist. the whole ending i wanted to slap him for being so annoying. i audibly complained so often that my mom had to ask me to be quiet, but it was a fun, quick read, but check trigger warnings!
when they introduced the whole matrix thing i was so disappointed
this had so much potential to be cool if it just got proofread a bit and maybe didn’t steal the plot twist. the whole ending i wanted to slap him for being so annoying. i audibly complained so often that my mom had to ask me to be quiet, but it was a fun, quick read, but check trigger warnings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Suicide
Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Fatphobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Alcohol, Excrement, Infidelity, and Vomit
connellplease's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Child death