It’s been a while since I picked up a teen-aimed title, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting to reach the end and find myself utterly dumbfounded. I’ve been chewing over how to review this book but it but it is quite enormous in Makes-You-Think and deep in Reflect-on-Self, and a brief review feels like sweetening tea, when the tea’s volume is that of an Olympic swimming pool and you’re armed with a measly teaspoon. That is to say, there really isn’t enough space to do it justice, and it’d be a whole lot easier to explain if you just read it, basically. (which I recommend you do). Each chapter concludes with enough suspense to propel the reader forward, or perhaps, further down the rabbit-hole. Just a few of the subjects covered: Life, death, love, loss, friendship, family, loyalty, belonging, betrayal, trust, hope. “More Than This” – those three words alone – seemed to me to be a mission statement of hope. And I think, overall, the ‘hope’ element is what I carried away with me when I finished this book. This was my first Patrick Ness read, but it certainly won’t be my last!

I went into this book knowing nothing; only have read the blurb. I suggest if you want to read this book, do the same. Go in blind. Each sentence was gripping, and at the points where nothing was really happening; it was all happening. The way Ness writes is outstanding. I really can't give it enough credit. Having not known anything about this book other than the fact it was about a boy who drowned and woke up, the part of my heart that holds my love for conspiracy theories glowed and warmed me up. It was so special to be hit with the whole concept of virtual reality, having been extremely into theories of out existence, and I was so pleased that It was such a surprise. Really couldn't love this book anymore (and i actually adore Seth). I don't think words can actually explain how outstanding this book is.

Despite being a book aimed at teenagers I would definitely recommend this novel to adults as well: it had an incredibly interesting, relevant and slightly dark plot and it touched on so many universal topics in a highly complex and interesting way. Life, death, love, loss and family (amongst others) are rarely explored so well even in adult novels. This book really should be required reading for everyone! The novel starts with the brutal scene of a boy dying. We then see the same boy wake up in a street in England, abandoned and confused: from there onwards the plot only thickens and it has so many shock and wow moments that it was very hard to put down. There are m any twists and turns that need digesting but despite having such a fantastic plot, the book really is also so thematically brilliant, that by the end I was more consumed with a feeling of hope and the importance of there being more to life than you always see. It's hard to truly do justice to 'More Than This' in a review: all I will say is it has the unique combination of being both a pay thriller and a emotionally rich thematic novel that will make you think about so many different aspects of life. Just read it. I hope teenagers are reading it too as it's a cut above the average for it's genre. Amazing.

There's something defiantly brilliant about Patrick Ness' More Than This which makes me want to celebrate it, but unfortunately it runs out about a third of the way in. The opening pages, depicting out protagonist drowning, are astonishingly good, and the entire first section in which he struggles to understand the afterlife he has apparently woken up in is a masterpiece of careful world-building informed by heart-wrenching flashbacks. Ness has a handle on the human experiences -- love, loss, hope, fear, memory, identity -- that transcends mere YA labelling and gives anyone with any vestigial interest in humanity something to relate to in a way that aches and yearns for a sense of meaning and belonging. And then the plot starts, and we get Tomasz: a comedy sidekick who is possibly the most serendipitous character in the whole of fiction, sort of the Jar-Jar Binks of this universe in that his presence manages to derail everything. Ness even seems aware of this, trying to tie in a commentary on the convenience of Tomasz and Regine (Regine is awesome, by the way, loved her) and how they fit a conventional narrative trend...only for nothing to become of this. Everything Tomasz does being alarmingly convenient would be made okay if this became an aspect of the overall story, but instead it doesn't and you're left with a brilliant concept marred by lazy execution. Given how brilliantly and unconventionally it starts, it's odd how predictable it becomes once these two show up. And none of the ideas it posits are anything close to new or fresh -- seriously, there are very, very famous examples of these exact ideas which explore them far better. And then the end really spoils it. If the tension in most fiction lies in characters having to make difficult choices, we can be left in absolutley no doubt -- especially given the sudden and again miraculously convenient developments that happen right towards the very end, bordering on "Oh, hey, there's magic and it's great" as an explanation -- that our protagonist not only has his cake, but that he eats it, orders more, then eats that and loses weight while doing so. Which is such a shame, because that opening third is close to the pinnacle of speculative writing and deserved a far firmer landing.