Climate change. Terrorism. Failing economies. Epidemics. Is there another option for humankind?
Seth is nearly 17. He lives with his mum, dad and little brother Owen in a nice house in the US. Friends, school, his love of running – it’s all okay. Until it’s not. So not good. So bad, now so unlivable, Seth has decided to end it all. Everything he’d held close, the one thing that made everything okay is now gone. His secret is out. Seth achieves his terrible goal in a freezing ocean.
…and then he wakes up. At first he’s dumbfounded. He’s in a house that he seems to recognise, but not the one he left that morning, planning to drown. There are no people inside, or outside on the weed strangled streets. Everything is caked in a thick layers of dust, with no signs of any other living thing disturbing that dust. His own footprints in it just make him feel even more alone. He knows he died. Is this hell? Is this his own personal version of it?
He woke wrapped in bandages – not for any injuries he can find. Even the injuries he sustained in his suicide are gone. The bandages have a metal tape on one side which faced his naked body. The first thing he decides to do in this suspected own private hell is find clothes.
Hunger and thirst are the next drivers, forcing Seth to explore his surroundings. There are cars left on the side of the road, every single tyre flat. There is no electricity, no birds singing, shops are locked tight and houses too. Not a soul reveals themselves. He equips himself from an adventure outdoors store and returns to the home he now recognises as the place he grew up in until he was eight years old. His family left this house to escape something terrible. He’d died in the US. Somehow, he’s now in the UK.
Confusion reigns until one day he sees movement. It’s a large black vehicle being driven away from him. But as he yells after it, a girl his age and a young boy appear telling him to quickly hide or die…
A riveting story by multi-award winning author Patrick Ness. More than this is gripping from the first page. Why does Seth want to end it all? What happened to him?
We learn his secrets through Seth’s dreams and nightmares, as his subconscious remembers. These revealing nightmares become too much for him, and some days he does everything to try and avoid them. But just as he needs shelter, water and food, he needs sleep and can’t avoid facing his memories.
It’s not until he meets a 17 yr old feisty girl called Regine and a young Polish boy called Tomasz, that he begins to figure out his present. Where is everyone else? Why are they the only 3 people alive?
More than this delves into human nature, our lives, loves, wishes and dreams. Again, Patrick Ness has explored the human condition of living. loving, hurting, wanting more but learning to understand ourselves and others. Although published in 2013, More than this explores a possible future for humankind wanting to avoid the world of climate change, pain, economic collapse and epidemics – a world destroyed on so many levels.
With all we are facing in 2020, could this be a possible future? Brilliant!
Author – Patrick Ness
Age – 13+
Quick Review
Seth is hurting. He’s had a wonderful secret that has been revealed and trashed, bringing pain, shame and a desire to end it all – and he does. But this is only the first two pages of this brilliant novel. Seth wakes up, confused, whole and breathing. But where is he, and where is everyone else? Could what he discovers be a possible future and escape for humankind?
More than this delves into human nature, our lives, loves, wishes and dreams. Again, Patrick Ness has explored the human condition of living. loving, hurting, wanting more but learning to understand ourselves and others.
View Patrick Ness talking about More Than This here
More Patrick Ness Titles
(Future, Suicide, LGBTQ+, Friendship, Escape, Action, Pursuit, Nightmares, Dreams, Secret, Love, Betrayal, Survival, Action, Grief, Murder, Mystery)