The Rest of Us Just Live Here

“So what have I been doing for the last five months? I refer you to ‘zero times’ above.”

This is an early example of the characteristics of Mikey’s narration. Referring specifically to the number of times he’s shared his feelings with Henna, this quote captures the sarcasm he so often employs when dealing with a difficult situation or confronting a quality in himself that he doesn’t admire.

“Our town is just like your town.”

Ness strives to make Mikey’s hometown, despite the presence of indie kids and supernatural incursions, feel relatable to readers. This feeling of relatability is important in establishing the idea that “ordinary” kids like Mikey and his friends have to deal with circumstances that feel or are extraordinary all of the time.

“Honestly. Adults. How do they live in the world?

(Or maybe this is how they live in the world).”

This quote exemplifies the complexity of Mikey’s thought processes and his tendency to entertain contradictory thoughts, often following in parentheses. Mikey is constantly searching for answers to the questions about growing up that he doesn’t understand, and he’s unwilling to settle for straightforward or obvious solutions.

“The restaurant’s so old it’s still split down the middle from when one side was smoking and the other was non.”

Despite Ness’s desire to make Mikey’s hometown feel like it could be anyone’s hometown, he also takes steps to make the setting vivid and believable. Here, the detail about the restaurant still being split from smoking/non-smoking characterizes the restaurant (and town) as one marked by its history.

“Because weren’t we all perfect and adorable? Weren’t the Mitchells exactly what the state needed? Look at us with our healthy and unthreateningly average smiles.”

This passage begins Mikey’s critique of his mother and of the demands American politics place on teens. Here, Mikey’s sarcasm points to the idea that the “averageness” demanded of his family in the hopes of seeming appealing is indicative of the falseness that defines politics.

“Look, some more stuff happens that evening—Meredith argues with our mom over Bolts of Fire, Mel snakes out to Henna’s house—but nothing so important I have to go on about it.”

Mikey’s narrative insights are highly subjective—and Ness reminds the reader of that fairly regularly. Here is an instance of Mikey telling the reader that he feels some observations are more important than others and that he’ll move the plot along accordingly.

“And Henna and I are both ducking to the middle of the seat and our heads hit together with a funny coconut sound and glass is breaking and metal is bending above us (which is so loud, so loud) and something hits me hard in the cheek and I hear Henna make a soft ‘oof’ sound and her body shifts away from mine and it’s only now I realize the car is still moving.”

Here, Ness plays with syntax to demonstrate how Mikey experiences the car accident. The polysyndeton creates a sense of the elongation of time as Mikey experiences every single detail of a short moment and yet can’t stop any of it from happening.

“But now here’s the thing: you may not believe this. You may not believe any of this, actually.”

Ness intentionally draws attention to how unbelievable some of the events of this novel are, which helps reinforce the idea that these events are also difficult for Mikey to believe. Ness never tries to make the supernatural elements of the story feel integral or natural to the world Mikey inhabits; he consistently emphasizes how out-of-place and jarring they are for Mikey.

“‘I should kill myself. I should just drive off a bridge and make all your lives better.’

‘That’d be a waste of a good car.’”

The novel doesn’t often employ humor, but this is one of the rare instances of Mikey using black humor. The fact that Mikey feels comfortable saying this to his father demonstrates not only the lack of concern or understanding Mikey has for his father’s apparent depression, but also the way in which Mikey has learned to cope with his father’s maudlin behaviors.

“‘What if…’ I say quietly. ‘What if I am going crazy? What if I get trapped in a loop and there’s no one to get me out?’”

Here, Ness uses Mikey’s very real concerns about how his OCD affects his mental health to also do symbolic work for the narrative. Mikey’s fear of entrapment in a behavioral loop without recourse reflects his broader fear of abandonment.

“Yeah, my parents are crappy, but you hurt either of my sisters and I will spend my life finding ways to destroy you.”

This passage demonstrates not only Mikey’s protectiveness, but also the earnestness of his narrative voice. Mikey narrates his life without concern for how ridiculous or excessive he might sound—his expression is unabashed, especially when it comes to his chosen family, which includes both of his sisters.

“When the voice comes. It’s like a whisper mixed with the whine of a buzz saw. It seems to come from everywhere at once, miles away but also in your head, too.”

In this passage, Mikey comes into contact with the supernatural. The intensity and tenor of description changes in this passage in order to convey the strangeness of Mikey’s experience. Ness uses specific pairings of disparate images in order to create a sense of the otherworldliness of this encounter.

“They want us a bit dumb and a bit afraid. Which, for the most part, I think we are.”

Here, Mikey develops his cynicism about American politics. Mikey’s loathing of politics is a reflection of how politics have reshaped his family and forced him away from his parents.

“The mistake of every adult, though, is to think darkness and hardship aren’t important to young people because we’ll grow out of it. Who cares if we will? Life is happening to us now, just like it’s happening to you.”

Mikey’s rebuttal of his mother’s dismissive comment about young people speaks to the loss of agency he feels. Mikey is frustrated that his mother’s political ambitions do give her agency, yet she doesn’t use that power to address the “darkness” that Mikey perceives.

“I talk like a politician. My mom has a speech where she says ‘off the rails’ a lot when she’s talking about the other party.”

Here, Mikey’s confession to Henna suggests that Mikey already sees some of the ways in which he’s similar to his mother. This plays into Mikey’s fear that the traumas the supernatural incursions cause are cyclical and that he’s doomed to repeat his parents’ mistakes.

“‘Ready for a good time, people of—’ and then he names not our little town, but the larger town about an hour away.”

Ness not only resists ever naming Mikey’s fictional hometown, but he also avoids naming the political parties that Mrs. Mitchell and Mr. Shurin represent. This move allows these structures to become more universal and resists politicizing the book in a way that might alienate readers.

“Not everyone has to be the Chosen One. Not everyone has to be the guy who saves the world. Most people just have to live their lives the best they can, doing the things that are great for them, having great friends, trying to make their lives better, loving people properly.”

This is an example of how guarded Jared is about his internal struggles, even with Mikey. Later, Mikey will learn that Jared has been grappling with the idea that he could be an indie kid and the implications of what that means. Here, it’s shown that these are questions Jared has been processing for a long time, even though he hasn’t brought them up directly.

“And anxiety is a tumor on your feelings?”

Mikey’s mid-therapy revelation is a turning point in his understanding of his OCD. Here, Dr. Luther helps Mikey grasp the idea that mental illness isn’t a failure of personality by likening it to a physical ailment.

“‘I wonder if realizing you’re not sure about stuff is what makes you a grown-up?’

‘Lots of adults seem really sure about things.’

‘Maybe they’re not grown-up either.’”

Mikey and Henna’s relationship is, in many ways, defined by the questions they ask each other and the answers they do (or don’t) find. Here, they begin to pinpoint the idea that embracing uncertainty is a means of Coping with an Uncertain Future.

“I don’t know what to say. Because this is what hurts me.”

Mikey reflects after Jared confesses that everyone else in the group knows about his relationship with Nathan. This quote highlights how perceptive Mikey is when it comes to his own emotional states, yet he struggles to understand the dynamics underpinning his friends’ emotions.

“‘Everyone’s got something. Not even just us, everyone we know.’ She looks thoughtful. ‘Except maybe the indie kids. They’re probably the most normal ones out there.’”

Henna’s observation here underscores the idea that YA protagonists are often robbed of the experiences that define a childhood. For Henna, a totally mundane, non-supernatural childhood is full of strangeness and challenges, from difficult relationships with their parents to mental health concerns. The indie kids, resigned to a single fate, lack these same qualities despite their powers and status.

“We’re each other’s questions, aren’t we? The question that never gets an answer.”

Henna and Mikey have a relationship defined by questions. Before she and Mikey have sex, Henna characterizes both Mikey and herself as questions that must go without answers. This metaphor engages the idea of relationships as processes of discovery that don’t result in definite solutions or endings. After they connect sexually, they revisit this metaphor, concluding that the “answer” is that their love is, in fact, platonic.

“It has nothing to do with not trusting you. It’s to do with what something becomes once you tell it. It’s like it’s truer. And it’s got a life of its own and it rushes out into the world and becomes something you can’t control.”

Here, Jared finally explains why he never told Mikey about Nathan. Jared’s observation that speaking something into the world gives it “a life of its own” connects to the idea of how and why these characters gain and lose agency. Jared fears the loss of agency over his relationship with Nathan; making it public opens it to observation and lessens his own agency.