Thursday 30 August 2018

Review: More Than This

More Than This More Than This by Patrick Ness
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since my first Patrick Ness book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, I’ve been curious about More Than This. There was curiosity about all the Patrick Ness books, yet More Than This is the one to have intrigued me the most. Thus, when I decided to work through all his books, I worked on the ‘save the best until last’ basis, crossing my fingers I would adore More Than This.

Through reading all the Patrick Ness books to date (excluding And the Ocean Was Our Sky, which I shall grab once the library has it), I’ve found my feelings towards his work are rather mixed. There are the cases of The Crane Wife and Release, where I gave two-star ratings, where I was not won over by the story. There is the case of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, where I gave a three-star rating, where I wasn’t quite won over but I appreciated the story. There are the cases of the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls, where I gave four-star ratings, where I really enjoyed the story I was given. Despite my mixed bag of emotions, Patrick Ness continually offers something different, continues to grab my attention.

With More Than This, I went in with quite a few expectations. It turns out, the story was nothing at all like I had imagined it would be. If I’m being completely honest, I was rather worried at first. Part one of the story failed to grab me, and I found myself fearing a repeat of Release. A story with promise, a story that mixes elements together, but one that failed to grab me. Part two is what won me over, is what guaranteed I’d be devouring the book at quite some speed. Things were introduced, and I found myself curious about how everything would come together.

More Than This is one of those stories where you’re never quite given any answers. In fact, you leave the book with more questions than answers. Plenty of things are open to interpretation, and it made this a really interesting story to work through. At the end I found myself asking whether I really knew what I thought I knew, found myself curious as to what the truth of the situation was.

I know some people will hate the story for that very reason – it’s one of those literary devices people either enjoy or hate. Personally, I rather enjoyed it. It meant the story was nothing at all like I’d anticipated, but it left me engaged throughout.

Was I right in my choice to leave More Than This until last? It may not be my favourite Patrick Ness book – I enjoyed the Chaos Walking trilogy too much for that – but it was an enjoyable read.

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