Review: More Than This by Patrick Ness

More Than This by Patrick Ness

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Source: Library

Synopsis from Goodreads:
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 named 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 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 neighborhood 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. . . .

Well it did it- this book made me cry! And not just a little bit either- proper sobbing!

Wow. 
That is all I can coherently say anyway after reading this. This book is brilliant, ingeniously clever, controversial and weird. 

I have to say I preferred the first part of the story- where we see main character Seth after his suicide living in his own version of Hell, completely isolated and re-living his memories of his life. It's this part that got me the most choked up. Seth's back story, with his broken family, and doomed relationship is incredibly tender and moving, and built Seth up into a character that you feel for and care about.

I don't really know any way to describe this book, other than it is essentially an afterlife/ sci-fi story. What happens after you die, smashed against some rocks in a freezing ocean? Well, in Seth's case it is so strange and unbelievable that it makes you want to keep reading, through all the bizarreness until all the little puzzle pieces start clicking together. 

This is a moving, riveting and life-affirming story, with completely unusual twists and turns that I guarantee that you will not see coming. It's a roller coaster ride of a read and expect your mind to be blown completely with this one. 

I can't say too much without giving things away- all I can say is- it's really, really good. Read it.