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…
The first word I think of when I think about this book is: slightly disappointing..
Okay that’s two words but you know what I mean.
This story begins with the death of Seth and at this point while reading it I was sucked in to the action and mystery held in this book.
However that was where my excitement ended…
I found the character of Seth to be really, really annoying. I didn’t like the way he repeated and over-explained himself. I think without that the book could’ve been half the size. I also found his character to be a little under- developed and I found him really hard to visualise and understand.
When I think about the other side characters of this book, I find myself thinking that they are really interesting and add a lot to the story. Like Gudmund, for example. I love his character and I love his relationship with Seth. But again, I found Gudmund to be even more underdeveloped than Seth and I found myself wanting so much more from his character!
I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll stop talking about the characters and I’ll move onto the plot…
I thought that this plot had so much potential and there were elements of the story that I really enjoyed (redacted for spoilery reasons)
But again, I found that most of the plot was just rambling nonsense that could’ve been cut and save at least a tree or two in the process….
I’ll leave me rant there but I needed to review this book for you guys because this is one of the books on the Carnegie shortlist this year. In less than a month, I am attending the Carnegie shadowing- which I will blog in full- so I wanted you guys to have a full idea of what you can expect from this book.
Thanks for reading, all my social media links are down below so go and check those out!
Talk to y’all later!!
More Than This Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21969786-more-than-this
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