Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Daisy's Mini-Review of More Than This by Patrick Ness


Title/Author: More Than This by Patrick Ness
Publisher/Date published: Candlewick Press, September 10 2013
How I got this book: bought it for book club

Goodreads summary: 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...

So it's been 3 months since I read this book and I'm still unsure how I feel about it. So here are some general thoughts on this book:

-I felt like this book had two different parts: the one in the 'now' and the one we saw through flashbacks. And I was kinda bored for a big chunk of the 'now' part, but the flashbacks were BEAUTIFUL. If the whole book could have been filled with the same level of awesome that were the flashbacks, that would have been perfect. It almost felt as if I was reading two different books just thrown together into one binding.

-There was something SO creepy about one of the characters! I really don't want to give anything away, but seriously, I wouldn't want to come across him even in broad daylight. Totally creeped me out.

-I LOVED the romance. It was beautiful and perfect and told in the flashbacks and it was just amazing.

-The end was just a whole lot of WTF??? I mean, some of the actions of one character just made no sense whatsoever and it was just WTF??

-There's a revelation about Seth's past and it was so infinitely sad and I can't imagine going through something like that.

So I'm torn. There were beautiful parts and sad parts and a whole bucketload of WTF moments, but for a big chunk of the book I was kinda bored.

Have you read this book? Any thoughts on it? Let me know!

12 comments:

  1. Haven't read this book yet. Its on my TBR but I havn't been in a rush to read it yet.

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  2. I just heard about this one this week. I'm intrigued after reading this review!

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  3. I felt really ticked off with the ending. I had invested so much in this weird (and at times boring) story, and I got NOTHING. I'm all for "ambiguous" endings, but that ending didn't even qualify. Ugghhh.... Thanks for the lovely review.

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  4. I agree about the "now" parts being kind of slow and very incongruous with the flashbacks. I wanted to like this one more as it was my first Patrick Ness but it fell flat for me (that ending!). I've heard his Chaos Walking trilogy is totally different so maybe I'll try to the first one in that at some point.

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  5. I read this one this year and am torn, too. There definitely was a lot of WTF going on and I felt like when it ended there was a giant lack of resolution -- it was like looking forward to the carride only to realize I was being driven around the block and dumped off back at home. Not very exciting.

    You're right, though. The flashbacks were probably the best part of the book!

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  6. I have been wanting to read this book, but maybe I will wait a little longer. I think I would be bored by this book too.

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  7. I haven't heard of it but you little review as really got my interest peaked. :)

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  8. I read this book and really enjoyed it. I found myself thinking about it a long time after I had finished it. I thought the concept was really interesting and the situation that the main character finds himself in (in the flashbacks) is pretty timely. I thought the "wtf" moments made for an exciting read, though sometimes super confusing.

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  9. I've not heard of this novel yet but I appreciate your honest review and am in no hurry to add it to my TBR now

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  10. I agree with you - the whole time I was reading the "now" sections of the book, WTF was the main question running through my mind. But I found myself getting bored with the monotony of Seth's life there and I cared more about the flashbacks, which were so heartbreaking. By the time I finished, I didn't really know what to think. I felt there were a lot of questions left unanswered and I was left feeling kind of "meh" about the whole thing.

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  11. I loved this book. And yes, I do agree that it may feel like you're reading two different books. The flashbacks were really beautiful, and that ONE character is REALLY creepy! The ending was, well, it was WTF, but I'd like to think that it's open-ended, like Inception. :D

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  12. I'm reading this one right now, and I keep feeling bored. But I WANT to love it. I love Patrick Ness.

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