By Henry Pincus '22
In my opinion, some of the best writing comes from taking a familiar concept and turning it on its head. Finding a new way to explore familiar and well-known tropes within a story is always a refreshing thing to see. This is especially true if the story in question is one that's been told and retold a thousand different times.
There have been many, many books written about a kid going to a school in which fantastical hijinks ensue. Probably the most famous of these is the Harry Potter series, which is pretty much exactly that type of story, complete with a "chosen hero" protagonist, a spooky, child-murdering antagonist, and a final fight between good and evil. From the moment he reaches Hogwarts, Harry learns that he's a special kid because of the scar on his forehead that shows that he's, as I said, a "chosen hero." And that type of story is fine, but it gets stale once you've heard it retold a couple hundred times.
This is why I appreciate Patrick Ness's The Rest of Us Just Live Here. It's a story about a high school where supernatural danger is a constant threat, one that can only be stopped by a certain group of chosen heroes who rise up to defeat it in a spectacular, cataclysmic battle to the death.
That's cool and all, but it's told from the perspective of a guy who isn't really involved in any of that.
The protagonist, Mikey, is really just trying to graduate and get away from it all. He doesn't have any remarkable traits. He doesn't have any special powers. He's had a pretty uneventful life, and the people around him are the same way. All the main characters of the book are regular people trying to live their lives and stay out of whatever final battle is going on that week. The "chosen heroes"--called "indie kids" in-universe--rarely get more than a passing mention. In fact, a lot of the regular people in this book are more dismissive and annoyed by them due to the destruction they cause.
Naturally, supernatural evil is also present in the lives of the protagonists. There are a couple of tense action scenes in which some cosmic evil attacks Mikey or his friends, and they have to deal with it the way a normal human being would: by not killing It. However, the action isn't the focus of the story. Nothing in this story is centered around the flashiness of the world these characters live in; rather, it's about the characters themselves. Mikey's interpersonal relationships, his past, the growth and development he and his friends go through as they stumble through normal life, it's all very human and down-to-earth. The story's told from the perspective of someone who isn't just a side character in someone else's story--he wants to stay that way. And I think that's absolutely genius.
First of all, the concept is really clever. Writing a fantasy/dystopian novel from the perspective of the innocent bystanders who see all the action happen from a distance is a great way to put a spin on the formula of the special hero, destined to defeat evil. The way all of the dramatic fantasy flair is pushed to the side and framed as just a part of life is something I hadn't seen done before. Why would these people care about the goat creatures in the woods? They're not the ones who have to fight them.
Despite the lack of focus on what you'd think would be the interesting content, the book is still really fun to read. It's mostly character-driven, with an obviously heavy focus on the way Mikey perceives and interacts with the chaotic world around him. It's all very fun to read, as you see the fantastical painted in a uniquely jaded way, and normalcy given a much greater sense of importance. Mikey's personal journey through the events of the book might not be as impressive or as noble as that of whoever-the-hell is saving the world this week--but because it's from Mikey's perspective, the story feels just as meaningful. That's the underlying message of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, the message that sets it apart from much of the other fantasy I've read: you don't have to save the world for your actions to mean something. You don't have to kill Voldemort to be the hero of the story.
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