Weekly Reads: More Than This

More Than This is yet another book on my list of Printz potential titles. From the get go I was obsessed with the cover. That yellow part right there <-- is actually a cut out. Too cool right? Also the day that this came in on hold for me I was wearing new tights that are identical to the black and white background on the cover, along with yellow shoes. Eerie, right?

But the book! By page 3, the main character is dead. By page 4, he's convinced he's in hell. Boom. Off to a swimming start, huh?  (Pun intended, he drowns.) The reader starts the book knowing nothing, but as layer by layer is revealed, you become even more entranced in the story. I simultaneously devoured it while trying oh so hard to savor it. I rarely have an almost 500 page book feel like it has flown by in the blink of an eye. I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to give anything away, but definitely pick up this book.

As far as its Printz potential, I wouldn't be surprised if this walked away with the top title, but it should surely nab an honor award if not.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

A boy named 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 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 neighborhood 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. . .