Elle (ellexamines)'s Reviews > More Than This

"People see stories everywhere," Regine says. "That's what my father used to say. We take random events and we put them together in a pattern so we can comfort ourselves with a story, no matter how much it obviously isn't true. We have to lie to ourselves to live. Otherwise, we'd go crazy."

This is a book about hope. More Than This is about existentialism and is stuffed with insane plot twists. Yes, true. But more importantly, this book tells us there's always hope, as long as we hold on, as long as we don't let go. It's such an important message and it's so well executed and I just love terrible books with hopeful endings?? So much??

More Than This follows a boy who dies and wakes up in his childhood home in England, thinking he's in hell. From there, things get weirder... and more intriguing. All you really need to know is that I picked this up at 9 pm, thinking I would just read a bit before bed. I somehow finished at 1 am - yes, I did read this 500+ page book in four hours flat - and I don't even regret it.

♔ The plot is mind-blowing. Every twist is built up so well and makes so much sense, but there's no way to guess any of these twists. Nothing's out of left field, but you don't see any of them coming either. It's the perfect balance. Ness makes the book so suspenseful and intriguing it's impossible to put down. This is a 480-page book, and I did not put it down once.

♚ While parts are open to interpretation, and the ending is a bit open, this book doesn't completely leave you hanging. There are answers to the big questions in the actual plot. But given that this book is about mortality, don't expect to get through this without analyzing it and asking yourself "What does this even mean??"

♔ I know a few reviewers hate the ending, but I somewhat... adore the ending. Okay, it's a little confusing, but it doesn't feel like copy-out. I think the somewhat open ending was fitting for this story - it's hopeful, but not unconditionally happy than anything we could've gotten otherwise, let's face it.

♚ Despite being written in third person, it's easy to feel empathy for the main character, Seth. Seth feels like a real, fully formed person; he is just that well-written. His relationship made me cry actual tears. There are so many multifaceted, developed side characters here as well - no one is one-off.

VERDICT: A powerful, well-written, and mindblowing story. I honestly cannot recommend this enough— it's just too good.