Review of 'The Rest of Us Just Live Here'
Updated: Sep 17, 2021
The Rest of Us Just Live Here
By Patrick Ness, 2015
Young adult, Contemporary fiction, Paranormal Fantasy
Rating: 👻👻👻👻 (4 out of 4 boos)
“Not everyone has to be the chosen one.
What if you’re not an indie kid, fighting zombies or whatever this new thing is with the blue lights and the death?
What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate before someone blows up the high school. Again.
Sometimes you just have to discover how even an ordinary life can be extraordinary.”
What’s the main character like?
As you might have guessed from the summary above, first-person narrator Mikey is an average high-school senior who tells it like it is. Through his love for his sister and his commitment to his friends, we grow to love Mikey as a character, even as he has a hard time seeing in himself what’s to love. I found myself personally relating to him due to his OCD, although my own is not as severe.
How scary is it?
This book is a bit of a cheat, more teen comedy-drama than paranormal fantasy. Mikey and his friends are on the outside of the “important” students who are always off saving the world from one thing or another. As you’ll quickly realize, these “important” indie kids are not the focus. So...all the things that happen to them sound pretty scary and action-packed, but these events are pretty much reduced to a punchline in this book. Instead, we get a taste of how hard (and arguably scary) it is to just be an ordinary teenager.
Who might like this book?
This book reeks (in a good way) of quintessential classic epic teen comedy-drama. Think Paper Towns. Or Perks of Being a Wallflower. But with a twist.
What did I like best?
Mikey’s narration is just perfect. So very teenaged. So very smart. So very self-deprecating. So very raw.
What wasn’t my favorite?
Just can’t think of anything. My apologies!