More Than This
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Suicide
4.2
(1.4K)
Patrick Ness
From two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick Ness comes an enthralling and provocative new novel chronicling the life — or perhaps afterlife — of a teen trapped in a crumbling, abandoned world.A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .
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More Details:
Author
Patrick Ness
Pages
480
Publisher
Candlewick Press
Published Date
2013-09-10
ISBN
0763667676 9780763667672
Community ReviewsSee all
"I LOVED this book. What an amazing blend of philosophical and dystopian elements. This book has such a beautiful message and great storytelling. It teaches us the importance of relationships and dives deep into the concept of death and the afterlife. What I took away from this book is that we need to live life to the fullest. We all experience grief and loss, and those things take time to process. We process them in different ways. Sometimes things are out of our control. That’s okay. We’re okay."
"More Than This definitely makes you contemplate your own world. The beginning kept me interested with memory jumps, future, past, dreams? Who knows, everything kept you guessing. The problem for me was that there wasn't enough uncertain scenarios. The protagonist found two and just stuck with them.<br/><br/>The plot was narrowly focused as well. It seemed that the author kind of forgot about all these other people laying about. What should we do for them? Are they safer there? Should we get one to help? It was strange the way no one ever discussed these important decisions.<br/><br/>Also what about the past and how all the present came about. Even if it was real, not real no one researched the world around. They just stayed in their bubble it seemed eating and foraging waiting for memories to return. To me the characters were devoid of depth. You get the basics but I never felt that connection or need for one another other than out of circumstance.<br/><br/>The story did mess with my mind and kept me guessing though. Still it felt like an outline of what was to come. It had a Matrix/Inception vibe yet slightly less original."
""Their weak, and they're strong, and they make mistakes like anyone, like he has. And love and care have all kinds of different faces, and within them, there's room for understanding, and for forgiveness, and for more.
More and more and more."
I'll be thinking about this book for a long while.
Seth's pain leaving him blind to the love around him.
His parents' pain leaving them blind to Seth.
Seth's self isolation and ultimate sorrow.
And his deep love for his friends, online and offline, so deep he accepts their humanity and loves them despite the mistakes they made, despite the pain they inevitably cause him.
And maybe that's why Seth chooses to try and live both lives, online and off. And maybe the only way offline is dying the way he knows he did, disconnecting his online and causing a malfunction. So he chooses to die, online, again and again to see Tomasz and Regine who he only see offline BUT again and again attempts to go back online to experience his friends/family there, in a loop, to live both lives. The same life and 'death' over and over, for them. That's why he seems to know what's going to happen, why it seems it all happened because he willed each event, but its actually him remembering it.
He cherishes it all."
"This book was really interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat. In the beginning of the book they talked more about the main character Seth and more towards the end Patrick Ness talked about his relationship and you could see Seth’s character development. It was almost like the Patrick Ness’s writing style evolved throughout the book. Definitely recommend!!"
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Penelope pugner
"i actually love this book so much. the plot twists? the romance subplot? the mix of genres? my jaw was left hanging and tears falling. good book for someone who maybe had a dystopian phase earlier and wants a bit of that but maybe a bit of other stuff too. also it’s not your typical dystopian YA romance plot, which i liked a ton!! read it!! "
"Loved it"
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Anna Diederichs