Patrick himself is known for works such as 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' and 'Monsters of Men'. He has twice won the the Carnegie Medal (in consecutive years, no less), one of which was for the aforementioned 'Monsters of Men'. He is one of seven writers to win two Carnegie Medals and one of two to have won twice in a row. Safe to say, he is a fairly well-accoladed man.
The book follows Seth Wearing, who dies.
No seriously, on page 3 he dies.
Then he wakes up, inexplicably, in the living room of his childhood home, a whole ocean away from where he died. In the center of the room is a smooth, black coffin-like pod. As the story progresses, Seth meets the girl Regine, a fellow brit of around the same age, and the boy Tomasz, a young Polish immigrant. They live in fear of a mysterious person known as 'The Driver', a black-clad humanlike figure with incredible strength and an electricised baton he uses to kill people.
I don't want to go into massive spoilers, but hot damn is the book full of twists. Throughout the story, Seth experiences flashbacks of his former life during his dreams. Through these flashbacks we start to learn about how his younger brother was beaten near to death by an escaped convict, causing his family to move to the US (hence the strangeness of waking up in the UK). We also learn about Seth's friends and school life, and his homosexual relationship with a fellow student.
The book is arguably young adult due to the age of the protagonist, but it doesn't play on the same themes as most YA fiction. In fact, the book plays more on questions that are relevant to all of us, dealing especially with existentialism. In truth, the book probably falls more in the realm of sci-fi, taking the '15 minutes into the future' approach to exploring the other.
Seth it also gay. I'm about to make a bigger deal of that than Patrick Ness did.
Actually, it was refreshing to read a book with a gay character who was more than just his homosexuality. In the same vein, it's nice to have a gay character whose prime conflict has just about nothing to do with his being gay. On top of that, his homosexuality still plays a crucial part in the plot, so the character isn't just gay for the sake of having a gay character (looking at you, Dumbledore). I may be belabouring the point a little here, but in my opinion this is the best treatment of homosexuality I've ever read.
Seth it also gay. I'm about to make a bigger deal of that than Patrick Ness did.
Actually, it was refreshing to read a book with a gay character who was more than just his homosexuality. In the same vein, it's nice to have a gay character whose prime conflict has just about nothing to do with his being gay. On top of that, his homosexuality still plays a crucial part in the plot, so the character isn't just gay for the sake of having a gay character (looking at you, Dumbledore). I may be belabouring the point a little here, but in my opinion this is the best treatment of homosexuality I've ever read.
The plot is constantly clipping along, leaving you at every turn with more questions than you think Patrick could ever answer. The use of flashbacks to tell relevant story beats from Seth's life is also surprisingly satisfying, as each time he wakes up he is left reeling from the dreams and dealing with the flashbacks just the same as the reader is. It helps us feel connected to Seth, and that strong connection is what steers us through an otherwise overwhelmingly thick plot.
The resolution ends up being the only thing it could have ever been. Still, the obviousness of it will shock you. On the whole, the book perfectly balances its YA core with broad, 'adult fiction' themes and what is arguably elements of sci-fi. It's a tricky thing to do for any writer, and in 'More Than This' Patrick Ness makes it look effortless.
11/10 with rice.
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