Play Book Tag discussion

The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

4 stars

This book is a young adult book that is about a group of friends about to graduate from high school. They live in a world that could be drawn from a number of popular young adult books now a days. Ones where the end of the world is approaching (from a number of bad things) and only the special, chosen ones (think Bella from Twilight) can save it. This book is not about those kids, it is about the kids that inhabit that world but are not involved in the world saving stuff. These are regular kids with real world problems (anorexia, OCD, dysfunctional families, etc.) who just want to reach graduation without another vampire outbreak or the school blowing up. While the parody parts of the book are fun, they are just a back drop to the realistic issues kids face when they see that their life is about to change forever. When you graduate and go off to college and don't know if your high school friendships will survive the distance and changes that will happen as they leave childhood and become adults. These kids are struggling with the types of feelings and problems that a lot of kids their age struggle with in the real world. I was a great young adult read. It could have been told without the fantasy elements and still been a great story.

My husband and I both listened to the audio of this one (separately). When we were discussing it, I realized that a lot of it went over my head (the fantasy elements). I agree that the family story was compelling enough for me to be engaged.