The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness - Paul's REVIEW

*I received this book as an eARC from HarperTeen via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review*

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Title: The Rest of Us Just Live Here
Author: Patrick Ness
Upcoming Release Date: August 27, 2015

Synopsis: What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

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Review: The concept of this book is so interesting. There are so many stories where a group of high schoolers have to save the world. There's often a "Chosen One" and the world is saved at the last possible moment. Have you ever wondered what the other people in the town think? How about that kid in the back of the classroom the Chosen One sneaks out of to kill off the zombie hoard making its way across the football field? This book is about those others, not the "Chosen Ones" (or as this book calls them, the indie kids).

I love the humor this book has about itself. Its satirical, but there's an actual interesting story taking place as well.  

Each chapter starts off with a small bit about what's happening to the indie kids. Then it continues with Mikey's story. He's often in the background of these major events. I liked how his story shared parts with the parallel story of the indie kids. 

There are a lot of jokes about the indie kids that are really jokes on high school genre stories. I loved that they didn't use computers and always searched through the library. There were many other tropes addressed in fun ways. 

I am a few years passed being a teen myself, but a lot of the lingo didn't sit well with me. It just didn't feel modern. Many things about the current teen generation were made fun of, but it seemed like an adult making the jokes at the teens and not inclusive of them. Two examples of awkward language, in my opinion, were "computer keyboard" and "computer tablet". There were other similar phrases that just took me out of the modern teenage feel of the book. 

I could easily see this book made into a tv series or movie. It had a similar tone to Jennifer's Body and I love that film. I could see it as an outrageous movie with famous action stars playing the indie kids and only having a few scenes with them in the background. 

I enjoyed this book. It was funny, but there was also a story with depth. I give it a 4/5 and absolutely recommend it. You'll enjoy it more if you're familiar with high school genre stories like Buffy. 


--PAUL