The other Other Guys..
Genre: Y/A, Contemporary, GLBT, Fantasy
No. of pages: 336
From Goodreads:
What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?
What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.
Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.
Even if your best friend is worshiped by mountain lions.
I fell into the hype before reading this book, and unfortunately my expectations were set too high. And although came out of the novel thoroughly enjoying it, I was not wowed beyond belief.
‘The Rest of Us Just Live Here’ broaches varied topics all at once, treating race, (supernaturally) gifted, and sexual identity as an everyday thing. Which is comical and amazing into itself; it has a bit of that X-Men feel, or what you get after 5 or 6 seasons of ‘Buffy’ or ‘Charmed’ – the novelty has worn off and it seems nearly everyone has something special about them. This mix of issues woven into the world created by Patrick Ness added a dash of something extra.
Loving the melodrama – everyone is on the edge of something – and this novel is chock full of it. Even the stuff that goes down behind the scenes (brief descriptions in the chapter headings). But did everyone in the main cast have to have some sort of disability? It felt a little overdone. I know the ‘normals’ are meant to juxtapose against the special ones, the chosen ones; but really? I kinda wanted more grittiness to the main characters to balance out the fantastical elements of this story.
A big plus for me was the fact the parents are at the forefront of the story line. Not the typical single parent family where the caregivers are mostly absent. Maybe it’s because we are dealing with ‘everyone else’ and bucking the trend of a typical Y.A. stereotype and serving up a big plate of irony, but nonetheless, I enjoyed the involvement of the family unit as a whole.
We get to experience a truly unique antagonist in the form of the Immortals – though only really a subplot, and dealt with directly in the main story line – but their presence and influence affect the world of our cast. It was a refreshingly brilliant way to tell a story.
Light-hearted and a fast read – I completed it in a day. Though it took a while for the pace to pick up, as it was setting up each character. A great conclusion that gave me a lot of satisfaction – a salute to the fact that we can have great impact on other people’s lives without even being aware of it.
Would have rated it higher if it had more comedy/irony and dragged out some more intense feelings, overall it was simply enjoyable like an afternoon at the movies.
Overall feeling: Pleasing
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Casey Carlisle 