I tell myself all the time that I really don’t like YA
books. So much emotion. So much angst. So many vampires. The book reviews often get me, however, and I’ll take a YA
novel home, start to read, and then regret it. There are two – and now three –
exceptions to this: Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boy series and E. K. Johnson’s The Story of Owen and its sequel (though
I tweeted to E.K. that after reading the sequel I couldn’t read another book ever
again (I was being dramatic)). Now I have to add Patrick Ness to that list. I’ve
been meaning to read his Chaos Walking series for a long time, but just haven’t
had the opportunity. I’m so terribly glad, though, that I picked up his latest
book, The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
The main part of this story is about four teens looking
forward to the prom, graduation, and the rest of their lives. They’ve got
problems – serious ones, actually. Mel is anorexic and nearly died from not
eating. Her brother Mike suffers from severe anxiety and OCD. And Jared is the
grandson of a god. God of felines, actually. Henna’s parents are missionaries
and expect her to go a war zone with them during the coming summer. Mel and
Mike’s mother is constantly running for political office and kind of ignores
them. Meantime, their dad is an alcoholic. Oh, and the world is being invaded
by immortals who are trying to take over Earth through “indie” kids, zombie
deer, and zombie police officers. In some ways, it’s all typical fodder for YA.
But the indie kid stuff is told in the background. It could have been the main
story, but it’s so not. Mel and her friends know it’s happening-- they hear about
indie kids dying every day and are worried -- but that’s not their story. I think Ness is
poking fun at a great deal of the paranormal YA lit out there.
It’s the touchingly tender way that he deals with Mel and
Mike’s troubles that really get me. And the funny way he deals with them too.
Every generation, in this world, anyway, has dealt with soul eaters and zombies
and vampires. Teens might think that the bad stuff only happens to them, but
everyone has gone through it. So, I kind of loved it when Mike’s therapist says
to him, "We had
armies of the undead when I was your age. It was pretty awful and scary, but it
was confined, kept quiet, involving a fairly small group of people while the
adult world looked on obliviously." And doesn’t that really sum up how teens think?
This novel is not for every teen. The humor and sarcasm are
subtle. The pain and problems of Mel and Mike, especially, are real and
emotional. But they are handled brilliantly.
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