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A review by ronibooks
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
5.0
4.5 STARS
The rest of us just live here is one of those weird books I usually read.
It is special and noteworthy because in this book we do not follow the heroes, but normal people. The MC, Mikey, is a teenager with a lot of problems, but he's not the hero of the situation, he's not intended to save the world from destruction… He’s nobody but a simple boy who sees the umpteenth threat from the outside and, while the indie kids, the heroes, fight evil, continues with his life trying to solve his problems.
The plot itself is very nice and the reading, although the development is technically slow, flows very quickly. The rest of us just live here is a light and pretty little story whose purpose is to show what happens to normal people while heroes are busy fighting evil. A bit as if instead of the Avengers the protagonists were a group of civilians.
If on the one hand this is very, very interesting, on the other hand it provides a small… flaw, if you can say so. So we follow normal teenagers and they know very little about what is happening, the actual revelations are very few. In fact, the "fantasy" aspect of the matter is only clarified in the small paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter, in which the author lets us know what is happening to indie kids in the meantime that we follow Mikey.
The whole thing is undoubtedly original, despite this small defect, and I really appreciate the fact that both Mikey and his sister have certain disorders, consequence of their delicate family situation. Just as their friends also have problems in life. It made the story more realistic.
The narration as said flows fast and understanding is very very easy. The author also managed to make the creepy scenes great, such as the one with the possessed cops or the suspense of the car accident. The descriptions are very basic and superficial, if not with regard to the few protagonists, but the dialogues work well. Thumbs up, then, for the style used, which makes the reader feel close to the protagonist and makes us laugh and/or move in the right places.
The characterization was well done, the characters undoubtedly have a personality, and I particularly appreciated the relationship between Mikey and his best friend, the way the author suggests that the two may have had some flirting in the past and the way Mikey seems to accept it without much thought, despite professing to be straight. I don’t know, it was particular.
As for the writing style, I must say I liked it. Simple but well structured. As a light reading between books it works great.
So, is this book worth? I personally liked it very much. I recognize that it is not perfect, at first I was a little strange and the first impression was not good, but going on I found myself more and more taken and in two days I had already finished it
The rest of us just live here is one of those weird books I usually read.
It is special and noteworthy because in this book we do not follow the heroes, but normal people. The MC, Mikey, is a teenager with a lot of problems, but he's not the hero of the situation, he's not intended to save the world from destruction… He’s nobody but a simple boy who sees the umpteenth threat from the outside and, while the indie kids, the heroes, fight evil, continues with his life trying to solve his problems.
The plot itself is very nice and the reading, although the development is technically slow, flows very quickly. The rest of us just live here is a light and pretty little story whose purpose is to show what happens to normal people while heroes are busy fighting evil. A bit as if instead of the Avengers the protagonists were a group of civilians.
If on the one hand this is very, very interesting, on the other hand it provides a small… flaw, if you can say so. So we follow normal teenagers and they know very little about what is happening, the actual revelations are very few. In fact, the "fantasy" aspect of the matter is only clarified in the small paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter, in which the author lets us know what is happening to indie kids in the meantime that we follow Mikey.
The whole thing is undoubtedly original, despite this small defect, and I really appreciate the fact that both Mikey and his sister have certain disorders, consequence of their delicate family situation. Just as their friends also have problems in life. It made the story more realistic.
The narration as said flows fast and understanding is very very easy. The author also managed to make the creepy scenes great, such as the one with the possessed cops or the suspense of the car accident. The descriptions are very basic and superficial, if not with regard to the few protagonists, but the dialogues work well. Thumbs up, then, for the style used, which makes the reader feel close to the protagonist and makes us laugh and/or move in the right places.
The characterization was well done, the characters undoubtedly have a personality, and I particularly appreciated the relationship between Mikey and his best friend, the way the author suggests that the two may have had some flirting in the past and the way Mikey seems to accept it without much thought, despite professing to be straight. I don’t know, it was particular.
As for the writing style, I must say I liked it. Simple but well structured. As a light reading between books it works great.
So, is this book worth? I personally liked it very much. I recognize that it is not perfect, at first I was a little strange and the first impression was not good, but going on I found myself more and more taken and in two days I had already finished it