REVIEW: More Than This - Patrick Ness

PAGES: 480
PUBLISHER: Walker
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 4 Stars

SUMMARY

From two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick Ness comes an enthralling and provocative new novel chronicling the life - or perhaps afterlife - of a teen trapped in a crumbling, abandoned world. A boy called Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he is here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighbourhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust and completely abandoned. What's going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this...

REVIEW

This book is awesome; Beautifully written, wonderfully inventive and thought-provoking and completely captivating. It was structured really well; I enjoyed finding out more about Seth's character as the book progressed through the flashbacks he encounters. 

For a book told in third person, I still felt incredibly close to the character and the situation he was in; Patrick's descriptions of what Seth was thinking, feeling and seeing were brilliant. As the story develops it becomes more and more enticing, yet as a reader I still didn't have any clue where exactly it was going or how it would end - sometimes that can be frustrating but in this case it just made me want to read more, I was desperate to know what would happen! 

It's such an original book, and the synopsis on the back is deliberately vague so as not to give away any key plot points so all I'll say is it's fantastic!

- Gem.

AUTHORS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Patrick Ness

IN HIS OWN WORDS

From Patrickness.com:

Who are you?

I’m Patrick Ness, born at the stroke of midnight on the new millennium, suckled by wolves (well, a wolf and an open-minded Weimaraner), and schooled by Jesuit mermaids. I’m from America, live in England, and am a blending of both (with a firm genetic trunk of Norwegian. It’s why I’m tall and freckly. Skol!). I’ve had lots of jobs but won’t bore you with the usual wacky list, though I did teach creative writing at Oxford University for three years. Which wasn’t even remotely wacky. At all. Currently, I write books, but that’s probably why you’re here.

What have you written?

I’ve written six books: The Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls for young adults, plus a novel for adults called The Crash of Hennington and a short story collection for adults called Topics About Which I Know Nothing. More to come, more to come.

What prizes have you won?

Right, it’s horrible of me to even pretend that you’d actually ask that, so I apologise profusely. Nevertheless, people do actually occasionally want to know, so here’s the current list:

• The Knife of Never Letting Go won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the James Tiptree Memorial Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
• The Ask and the Answer won the Costa Children’s Book of the Year Prize and was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Booktrust Teenage Prize.
• Monsters of Men won the Carnegie Medal and was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award and the Galaxy National Book Award.
• A Monster Calls won the Galaxy National Book Award and is currently (Jan 2012) shortlisted for the RedHouse Book Award.

Again, I’m sorry.

Will there be a fourth Chaos Walking book?

Well, the trilogy ends exactly where I want it to in Monsters of Men; it’s an ending I’m really proud of. So I think that particular story is finished. I’m a never say never kind of writer, though, so who knows if there may be other stories in that world? I couldn’t say at the moment, but I’m not averse to the possibility. That’s not a promise, though! Books emerge mysteriously. I’m helpless to what comes.

Will there be a Chaos Walking movie?

I hope so! I’ve sold the film rights to Lionsgate Studios, who are currently making the film versions of The Hunger Games. Development is just starting, so fingers crossed, eh?