Sometimes the good dreams are worse than the bad dreams.Īnd he wonders if there is more than this. He dreams of his family and the walls built between them. Everything is covered under a layer of dust that alludes to the passage of time.Įvery time he falls sleep he has vivid, agonisingly real dreams that make him feel like he is being tortured. He is also back to the house where he lived as a child before the tragedy that hit his family. He wakes up and he is naked, tired, thirsty and – unbelievably – alive. He feels the rock when it smashes his skull. He is in the ocean and he feels the waves and the cold. And yes, I know I need to read the Chaos Walking trilogy. I was curious to see where More Than This would fit in this spectrum. I thought A Monster Calls was the best thing since sliced bread and The Crane Wife was…not. Plus, I really wanted to see what I thought of it – my history with Patrick Ness books has been an interesting journey. Why did I read this book: It sounded great. How did I get this book: ARC from the publisher 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. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. 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. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. Publisher: Walker Books / Candlewick PressĪ boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. Genre: Horror (?), Science Fiction (?), Young Adult

More Than This by Patrick Ness