The Rest of Us Just Live Here

By: Patrick Ness

Narrated by: James Fouhey

Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

A new YA novel from novelist Patrick Ness, author of the Carnegie Medal- and Kate Greenaway Medal-winning A Monster Calls and the critically acclaimed Chaos Walking trilogy, The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a bold and irreverent novel that powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.

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.

©2015 Patrick Ness (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

Disappointing

It built up very slowly. It had great starts to an excellent story but never actually got to it and I was really disappointed. Is there another book? I still have a lot of questions and wish I gave more to the potential excitement.

why me?

I don't want to write reviews every time I listen to a book. it was just okay. jmo.

excellent

an extremely fun and engaging subversion of the traditional young adult novel which still preserves the best core messages and ideas from the genre and presents them unobfuscated by the flash and glamor of a high stakes end battle betwen good and evil. The book also hits well on Kurt Vonegets idea about the lie of stories inhernt in there presentation of good and evil or of possitive and negative outcomes all the outcomes are just what happens not necessarily the good or bad ending. really enjoed the book its good as a standalone and great as an additional commentary on and critique of the coming of age story.

A Real Story for Real People

From the author of Moster Calls is a teen story with a slight twist of the Supernatural. This story of seniors iabout to depart on their own is not only a realistic approach on their lives, but is funny, heart warming and a trip down memory lane ( for this reader) trying to pinpoint their sexual identity. It was a really captivating story, and I don't enjoy Realistic Fiction.

Ness does it again

I enjoyed this so much! Ness has been one of my favorite authors for a long time and I’m incredibly fond of his narrative. The depiction of mental illness is so real and relatable, and I really appreciate that. I fell in love with the characters and enjoyed their growth. I didn’t want the story to end. I love the hero stories, but to go back and live through these kids who just want to graduate high school is so much better than the A storyline.

My teenage son told me I had to read this book. I'm so glad I listened.

Full disclosure: I love shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and iZombie. I love comic books. But, I don't think you have to be a fan of the genre to appreciate this book. Mike is just an average guy. He has his friends and he has his problems. Even in a high school populated by "the chosen ones," Mike and his friends are special - because the truly love one another. Sometimes courage just means you're strong enough to live your life and help others live theirs.
This book was beautifully written. Heartfelt and funny. Extremely well narrated, too. The narrator had subtly distinct voices for the characters, and (blessedly) did not try to pitch his voice to read the female parts. I hate that. Instead he made his own voice a bit softer and smoother. It gave an impression of femininity without being weird.

Interesting take on supernatural teen life

This book is about a teen named Mikey who is finishing high school, spending time with his friends, and dealing with strange happenings involving an invasion of our realm by immortal beings. The book mostly covers Mikey’s life and feelings, typical teen experiences, and more. I found it very entertaining and a second parallel story is told through short intro sentences describing what is happening to the “indie kids”. The indie kids are the ones who seem to find supernatural trouble and have to save the world time after time. The one thing I didn’t like about the book is that no explanation is given to why these things are happening. I like to think perhaps they are all in a virtual world and don’t know it. The pacing is fairly good, though it does slow down at times and get mired in Mikey’s thoughts. Overall though, its a great quality book for entertainment but it is somewhat shallow unless you look at the brief struggles with OCD and eating disorders. The narrator for the audio book was top-notch.

False Advertising

Reading the summary made me think this book would be a fun comedy riffing on all the tropes of typical YA modern day fantasy novels from the perspective of an average Joe.

Instead, I found myself listening to a gritty coming of age drama about a high school senior coping with his and his family's mental illness. The most comedic part of the book was the chapter titles and the fantasy elements were only there to lighten the depressing mood while creating a vague, and mostly ignored, sense of urgency.

While this wasn't the type of book I was looking for when I purchased it, I admit that the writing was good. The ultimate moral lesson was also uplifting, but most of the book seemed to be intent on normalizing morally corrupt concepts like enabling alcoholism or high schooler/adult sexual relationships.

In other words, if you're looking for a spunky satire, this isn't the book for you.

Two stories in one

I feel like the book really had two stories, the more sifi story with the immortals and then a story following a messed up family with mental health issues. I really liked it, but they didn’t always totally flow together.

Surpring and Powerful

I came into this book thinking it would be a funny take on the life stories of the no-name side characters of generic hero quest stories (I had no prior knowledge of the author to be honest), but the book I got was so much more. The characters provide readers with positive messages of support and care for those suffering from mental health issues, family/home-life issues, or loneliness and neglect even though they all concurrently suffer from some combination of these. There’s also a positive message for members of the LGBTQ community that don’t feel safe or secure enough to fully come out, if at all. Just such positivity all over the place. I highly recommend this book to anyone that may be suffering from any of these issues or wants a pretty realistic-feeling interpretation of what people suffering from these things go through.