There are plenty of book-lovers who confine themselves to one genre. They get a thrill from a magic that doesn't exist on earth. Sometimes the truth is just too much to handle. Or maybe it's as simple as being comfortable and staying with what they know. But once in a while, a book is published and the story within holds the power to break these confines and take these bibliophiles into a world they've never seen – and perhaps get them to love it.
Patrick Ness's More Than This is one of those books. It centers on a boy named Seth who suffers a heart-wrenching, lonely death – all in the first few pages. Then, sometime later, Seth wakes up. Not in his bed or in a hospital, or even on the beach. He wakes up in his childhood home in England. But it's not the same. Everything has been abandoned. The grass is overgrown, and there's a dense layer of dust covering everything. There isn't a sign of human life anywhere. Just as when he died, Seth is completely alone, and he's wondering if a higher being sent him here to this place that holds his worst memories as a type of personal hell.
Seth soon discovers that his loneliness isn't the worst part of his apparent “afterlife.” No, the worst part comes whenever he closes his eyes. The memories catch him by surprise; they pull at his heartstrings for the world he left behind. Seth knows he's reliving the memories, but they feel very real. Every touch is solid, every scent is fragrant, and every emotion is as powerful as the first time. But that can't be. Seth wonders if he'll be stuck in this horrible world forever or if maybe, just maybe, there's more than this.
In his latest novel, Ness has accomplished what many strive to but most fail to do. With More Than This, he has created a world that not only should be experienced by readers of all ages and lovers of all genres. More Than This is chilling, riveting, and will leave readers questioning, like Seth, whether they are purely living life, or if they are possibly living something more.