More than this - Patrick Ness

From two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick Ness comes an enthralling and provocative new novel
chronicling the life - or perhaps afterlife - of a teen trapped in a crumbling, abandoned world.

A boy called Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he is here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighbourhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust and completely abandoned. What's going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this...

Patrick Ness was born in the USA, lived in London from 1999, and now lives in Los Angeles. He writes both novels and short stories for adults and children, but is best known for his books for young adults. His first books for teenagers make up the Chaos Walking trilogy, of which the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Booktrust Teenage Prize, followed by The Ask and the Answer, which won the Costa Award. All three titles in the trilogy were shortlisted for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, an unprecedented event, and in 2011 the third title, Monsters of Men, won the award. Patrick's sixth book, A Monster Calls, was based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd and illustrated by Jim Kay. It won every major prize in children's fiction, including the Galaxy National Book Award, the UKLA Book Award and the Red House Children's Book Award. In 2012 it became the first book ever to win both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal. Patrick has also written the screenplay for the film of A Monster Calls. Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and starring Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver and Felicity Jones, the film was released in 2016. The first film in the Chaos Walking series was released in 2021. Patrick Ness's critically-acclaimed novels include More Than This, The Rest of Just Live Here, Release, And the Ocean Was Our Sky and Burn.

My favourite book of the year
Simon Mayo, Radio 2

The Twilight Zone meet The Matrix . . . real thematic depth . . . Ness is very very good at endings - this one has a corker . . . He's outdone himself
The Guardian

Few adult novels make quite such an immediate impression as More Than This . . . the narrative is enthralling in its many strands and complexities

Irish Times - Robert Dunbar

Demanding and gripping . . . no wonder young adult fiction is booming when it boasts authors as talented as Patrick Ness
Daily Mail

This sophisticated scary tale amply demonstrates Ness's prize winning talent
Financial Times

His most engaging, most demanding, most confounding book yet . . . from the brutally harsh beginning to the profoundly graceful ending, a very exciting novel
Scotsman Magazine

A sparkling new YA novel. . . an impressively challenging and philosophical book for young adults, because Ness captures the ambiguity and bewilderment of being young and the uncertainty of what will happen to any of us next in life
The Telegraph - Martin Chilton

Carnegie-winning author Patrick Ness addresses huge issues in this 14+ novel, asking what makes life real - and worth living
Metro

A bold and unusual story, beautifully-written and shot through with a poignant sense of melancholy. Compelling, powerful and often painful
Booktrust

Intense and harrowing, infused with conviction
Books for Keeps

Patrick Ness has done it again, creating another intriguing and provocative novel for young adults
Bath Magazine

An exceptional book, beautifully crafted, one to be read and re-read
Recommended Reads 2013

Every bit as captivating as Ness' magnificent Chaos Walking trilogy
Bath Life

It's probably the most original- and my favourite- book that I've read this year!
It ticked all of the boxes and more, for me. I honestly can't recommend it enough! I was tempted to make a six hearts on my rating system, reserved for this book. Simply amazing!
Books and Writers Junior

One of the most original books I've read in years, part science-fiction, part exploration of love and family, and so much more. Wickedly clever, utterly convincing, this book is outstanding - don't miss it.
Irish Independent

Perfect for thoughtful, inquisitive teens.
The Telegraph

Impressive writing.
Books for Keeps

Controversial but brilliant.
Absoutely Notting Hill

Tense, boundary-pushing and challenging.
The Bookseller, Books of the Year

A teenage boy drowns, wakes up, finds himself in somehow familiar surroundings. Mysteries mount and explanations dazzle.
Irish Times - Robert Dunbar

A personal favourite…a tense thriller and a challenging philosophical book for young adults, this is one to read.
Sunday Independent

Exceptional. . . An enthralling and unnerving story that raises the most profound questions of adolescence.
Mumsnet Books for Teenagers 2013

Thriller, sci-fi novel, a coming of age story, More Than This is difficult to define, which only adds to its appeal. The perfect novel for any teenager (or adult) pondering the big questions of life.
Inis

Award-winning Patrick Ness is brilliantly tender as he captures the wonder of the love between Seth and Gudmund and the tragedy it brings within the enormous scope of his most recent book More Than This.
The Guardian - Julia Eccleshare

More Than This, by award-winning Patrick Ness, is a tense thriller and an impressively challenging and philosophical book for young adults
Telegraph Top 10 YA books of 201 - Martin Chiltern

Hugely satisfying, despite the ambiguity. The sense of hope it builds is palpable and I closed the book with a tear in my eye and a knot in my chest. . . A very daring book, and it so easily could have gone wrong but it didn't. I don't really know what else to tell you except trust Ness, and go out and experience it for yourself
The Paper Sea