‘The Rest of Us Just Live Here’ is the latest novel by hugely popular young adult author Patrick Ness. It follows the lives of Mikey and his friends during their last weeks of school. This is a high school like many others in Y.A. fiction at the moment: used to the occasional bout of vampires and zombies; however, this story focuses on the people who are just trying to enjoy time with their friends and graduate before the school gets blown up (again).
The story of the Indie Kids – this novel’s version of Katniss Everdeen or Harry Potter and co.– is told in snippets at the start of each chapter, while the rest of the book lets the reader follow how this is affecting Mikey and his friends. The novel also follows their stories of friendships, romances, and the looming challenge of all moving to different cities for university. On top of this, it deals with other complex issues such as mental health and the impact this can have in everyday life, which is woven throughout the rest of the story seamlessly.
Although it appears to be a story not about anything specific, it is anything but. The plot pulls the reader in from the first few pages and doesn’t let go until the very end. It is fast-paced and funny, while also being a very real story as it looks at issues that many people go through. It is Ness’ characters that really bring the book to life, feeling as real as the friends you know and interact with daily. These characters are refreshingly diverse, and all as unapologetically themselves and teenage as the protagonist himself. They are all working things out for themselves for the first time, and not necessarily sharing everything with each other. This allows the novel to look at the idea of remembering that everyone is as complete a person as you are: their thoughts, feelings, and reasoning included.
Overall, the novel is fun, reflective, and very engaging. It really shows off how ordinary lives can, in fact, be extraordinary (even without fighting off vampires).