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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: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Outing
Moderate: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
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.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 abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Rape
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: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
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: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity, Excrement, Vomit, and Alcohol
evilo_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction and Child abuse
Minor: Domestic abuse
s_macdonald's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia
Minor: Blood and Vomit
ssgcedits's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Amazing premise, great writing, terrible trauma. Not going through it again--ever. For such a complex story the lukewarm ending is quite disappointing. But, honestly, I don't think I could take another page of this nightmare world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Religious bigotry