Along with the Chaos Walking trilogy, this book is now one of my favorite Ness novels. A blend of contemporary and dystopian YA, "More Than This" manages to be both familiar yet fresh and all-together compelling. The main characters were very well fleshed-out and each had distinct voices; they were realistically flawed but likeable, and I found myself quite attached to them!
The narrative jumped back and forth in time, and usually I'm not a huge fan of that, but Ness really made it work here. The timelines felt seamless and I liked seeing the pieces fall into place. Also, there was just enough psychological teasing in here to make "More Than This" surprisingly suspenseful! As the scenes unfolded with The Driver I found myself more and more on the edge of my seat. The Driver is seriously one of the most chillingly alien YA antagonists I've read- loved him!

The only reason I'm docking a star from my rating was for the ending. I saw another review call the end too ambiguous, and I agree with that wholly. As a reader I felt like I was missing out of the real climax of the book. Although I don't mind a few loose threads, I think the book could have used a couple more chapters to really wrap things up better.

I would definitely recommend reading this though, no matter what your reading tastes are. Ness is a very talented author and he has yet to disappoint me. Will definitely keep reading his books! :)
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Survival

Seth is drowning. Literally. He dies. But then he wakes up in a desolate world, a place that looks similar to where he grew up, but yet it's empty and no one else is around. He thinks he might be in hell. Is he? Or is he somewhere....else?

This has an apocalyptic vibe, at least initially. Then it turns more sci-fi. And then it's also got a philosophical theme going on. I'm honestly not sure how I felt about this one. It was depressing, but hopeful. But more than anything, I felt like it left more questions than answers. Sometimes that's a good thing, but I think in this case I needed a little more closure than I got. ( )

Very strange book. A young man wakes up in an empty world. This first part was very inward looking, and I thought it was going to progress along the lines of "The Wall" by Haushofer. It didn't tho.
I think the main point of the book is to be a small beacon of hope for any who are feeling depressed and suicidal, to show that there is always "something beautiful in the world, if you know where to look", to demonstrate the value of friends. ( )

So is there More Than This? I still don't know, but I sure enjoyed the journey from not knowing to not knowing. That doesn't make sense, but I think that's why I liked the book. It didn't answer the question. It gave you some ideas, threw them up in the air and then let's you see where they will land on your own. Love it. ( )