Have you ever wondered what happens to all the other kids and people in novels like Twilight that aren’t main characters? They must see all the strange things going on in their town right?
That’s what ‘The Rest of Us Just Live Here’ was like for me at first. Like looking in on the lives of the people on the fringe of all these strange goings on.

Mike, his sister Mel, and his friends Jared and Henna have all seen the weird things happen in their town over the years. Vampires, soul eaters. That sort of crazy stuff. Now they are hoping whatever strange thing has hit their town this time, it won’t blow up their school before graduation. It’s only weeks away and they are all excited but nervous at new lives at College – away from home and everything that they know.

But it does mean that Mel and Mike can get away from their political aspirations of their mother and the sad state of their drunken father. But they do worry about leaving their young sister Meredith behind in such an environment.

But what are the strange blue lights they keep seeing – first as bolts of light and then from strange policeman in the middle of the night? And why do kids start to die when a new guy (Nathan) starts at their school? Isn’t that weird? Starting a new school right before graduation?

Each chapter of this book begin with a part of a fantasy type story which seems to have nothing to do with the chapter that follows. But the more you read, the more it links in and you begin to understand a ‘behind the scenes’ scenario that is alongside the main story.

Sound like a fantasy novel? It sort of is and sort of isn’t – it’s just a bunch of friends making the most of their last few weeks together before they leave for different lives.

Author – Patrick Ness

Age – 12+

(Inner conflict, OCD, Family, Growing up, Friendship, Trust, 1st person narrator)