More Than This by Patrick Ness (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: More Than This by Patrick Ness Kate Quealy-Gainer Ness, Patrick . More Than This. Candlewick, 2013. [480p]. Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-7636-6258-5 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-7636-6767-2 $19.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12. A broken heart has led sixteen-year-old Seth to suicide, but ending his life doesn't necessarily put an end to his problems. After drowning himself off the coast of his Pacific Northwest home, Seth wakes up across the world in the small English town where he spent his childhood. To be returned to the scene of his greatest failure and his family's deepest grief surely indicates that he's in hell, and the charred, desolate landscape, without a soul in sight, is only further proof—in Seth's mind—that he has been sentenced to a doomed and painful afterlife. Even when he does finally encounter two other living people, he remains unconvinced by their explanations that his "death" was merely his waking up from a computer program and that the entire world—and essentially reality—has gone online. This complex, genre-bending book opens with Seth's violent drowning death at sea, described in such spare but devastating detail that readers may feel themselves gasping for a breath as Seth draws his last. The tone remains quietly but deeply unsettling throughout the first half, with flashbacks to both Seth's childhood mistake and his more recent relationship with his boyfriend often providing more questions that answers in regards to Seth's present situation. Several early hints point toward the Matrix-like premise that is introduced in the latter part, but Ness subverts familiar sci-fi/survival tropes and storytelling conventions, leaving readers with an ambiguous ending that [End Page 107] is either incredibly frustrating or deliciously disturbing. The thematic explorations of the nature of reality and the afterlife offer some heady discussion fodder, while the nail-biting tension and high-stakes action sequences make this an easy sell to the legions of dystopia fans as well. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois