Young Adult Fiction

UK & USA dual citizenship Writer 

Patrick Ness  More Than This  Walker Books   2014  $29.99pb 478pp  ISBN 978 1 4063 5048 7

Themes: Afterlife/ Death/ Hope/ Isolation/ Reality

Seth is dead at seventeen, drowned at sea and his head smashed into a thousand pieces by being pounded on a rock but how can this be because suddenly he knows he is alive and breathing. He finds himself in an abandoned village that he realises is the place he lived in as a small child. This is a book that poses many questions, doesn’t try to answer too many of them and left me feeling somewhat disturbed but that I absolutely needed a sequel. While I understand the reasoning behind the rather blah book jacket it wouldn’t do much to lure in anyone with no knowledge of the writer. However to be fair, I wonder what else could have been shown that wouldn’t act as a spoiler?

Born USA October 17, 1971 Image: Guardian Newspaper

 It is written with such confidence (like all Patrick Ness’s works) that you are cushioned along for nearly 500 pages without wanting to stop.

Year 10 up/ Age 14 up (and adults)