Originally published: 5 May 2016

Author: Patrick Ness

Set in: Small town America

Genre:  YA/Fantasy

Page count: 345

Reading dates: 22-24 March 2018

Star Rating: 4/5

This young adult fantasy novel from Patrick Ness,  tells the story of a group of teenage kids about to graduate high school – Mikey who suffers with anxiety and OCD, his sister Mel who has battled eating disorders, their friend Henna whose parents want her to go with them to a war torn country and Jared who is gay (and also part God).

Their town seems to attract strange attention which in the past has involved vampires, zombies and ghosts in which a group of kids, known as the Indie kids always seem to be involved in.   Now something else is going on with an Immortal invasion on earth.  The cleverness of this book is that most of the action is happening away from the main story – we just get updated on events at the beginning of each chapter.

The story is more about the issues and lives of the 4 kids we are following who are aware something dangerous and strange is going on, especially Mikey who just want to go to prom and graduate before someone blows up the high school (again). Friendship is an overriding theme and the relationship between Jared and Mikey is especially touching, with Jared obviously caring deeply for Mikey, helping him when his OCD starts to spiral out of control.

This is probably my favourite Patrick Ness book to date!  It reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the strange goings on in Sunnydale and on the Hellmouth.  This was a choice for the book club I belong to.  The members consist of quite a mixture of ages and backgrounds and we tend to read what I would regard as more “high-brow” fiction and I wasn’t sure what they would make of it.  Most hadn’t read any YA before and almost everyone enjoyed it and liked that it raised many issues and problems that teens today may suffer from.  

Other books by Patrick Ness I have read and enjoyed:

A Monster Calls

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