The Rest of Us Just Live Here

“I got my dad and I got you and I need you both. More than you know.”

 This was a weird book. I loved it. At first I thought this was going to be a standard high school story where it portrays different student problems. But I was wrong. Like, super wrong. I mean, yes it touches base with problems that a lot of teenagers face but it also mixes in fantasy/mythical elements such as Gods, Vampires and, oh yeah, the Indie kids who prevent world domination. See, so not your standard story. At first, I was incredibly confused because I thought the Vampires and Gods that kept being mentioned, were some type of gangs. Obviously I was wrong because they were actually referring to the real thing. Made things so much clearer when I realised.

Patrick Ness has used an interesting structure when creating this book. The only way I can explain it is that he’s created two separate stories that are related but only join together at the end. It’s like every chapter reveals a piece of the puzzle to do with the Indie kids but still focuses on the main story which revolves around Mikey, his family and his friendship group. It’s pretty cool if I’m honest and I was always anticipating what the next chapter would bring, especially when it focused on the Indie kids.

Ness has exposed some of the insecurities and problems that many people, not just teenagers, face in everyday life. He tackles important issues such as anorexia, anxiety, OCD, family struggles and that change is sometimes inevitable. I think I found the character Mikey’s problems particularly hard to read, not because they weren’t interesting, but because they were so intense. His “loops” sometimes made me physically cringe, making it hard to carry on reading as it was like I was stuck in the loop with him. At times, I even wanted to cry for him because there’s nothing worse than being stuck and having no way out, or fearing that you’re slipping in a downward spiral in life. With the character Mikey, you could see his fear of returning to his old self where he could never overcome his loops, which for me as a reader, became pretty intense to witness. Ness’s book is powerfully written as many people can relate to the issues that are being explored, minus the Mythical creatures part. What I thought would end up being a humorous high school story, ended up being an emotionally revealing and powerful novel instead. The Rest of Us Just Live Here is definitely a book to read!