Can It Really Be 'More Than This'?

I've always tried to not be too influenced by what other people say. But when the front cover of Patrick Ness' 'More Than This' had a comment by John Green saying "Just read it", it steered my eyes towards it like a rocket. I'm a nerdfighter and I am partial to a little of both of the Green brothers, and, despite my questionably positive reviews of both of John's books that I have reviewed so far, we do seem to have a similar taste in literature. So, putting aside my feelings for its minimalist yet somehow garishly yellow cover, I picked it up and gave it a go.

I'll be brutally. honest, this book is not a quick starter. If you're one who needs immediate action or dialogue, I would skip to part two, as aside from the boy's death (it's not a spoiler if it's in the blurb), the beginning feels, in places, a little more Bear Grylls than what is the deeper purpose of all this. Do not, however, hold this against it. The opening chapters are at least slow on purpose, as, if our protagonist suddenly remembered everything and acquired immaculate survival skills without any struggle or vomiting, I would have a lot more problems with the opening. Alongside this, the rest of the novel is very pacey, dramatic, bang-bang action, and without this calm before the storm, I feel it would develop skim-read syndrome, a disease suffered by books with so much plot that the reader skim reads just to find out what happens next. Ness has this beautiful balance with his story, as elegantly placed as a grain of sand to two feathers on a scale, and yes if you're not into slow starters you might struggle a bit, but I promise the end result is worth it.

My problem reviewing this book is reviewing without spoilers. So much of this novel's foundations are laid in layer after layer of surprise, with plot twists that even I, a seasoned cynic and story-spoiler, couldn't guess. Ness' other real strength in this book is his perfectly un-beautiful character creation. I have said before and I shall shout it from the highest hills: YA does not need more Mary Sue, perfect protagonists, what it needs is believable people. Whether they are a likeable person to the reader or not, they should be real characters, real personalities, real emotion underneath their printed paper skins. Everything about the main character of 'More Than This' felt real, his selfishness, his loss, his anger, his guilt and, above all, his desperation and conundrum as to whether he is alive or dead. 

A lot of the time, people have a tendency to pigeon hole YA to not a 'serious' subject material, reducing it down to the 'Twilight's of this world. 'More Than This' wipes this theory off the face of the planet. Taking such a heavy subject matter and handling it so beautifully is the greatest skill of Patrick Ness' novel and it is definitely worth a read, albeit only if you're sure you have existential-crisis-proof hat on.