More Than This by: Patrick Ness

     A boy drowns, very desperate, and lonely during his final moments of life. He dies being crushed by the rocks of the sea. Then, he wakes up disoriented, naked, thirsty, bruised, and alive in his old home in England. Is this end for Seth Wearings, or is there more to it all? In the book More Than This by Patrick Ness, Seth, like many others in the world, dares to hope as he finds his way around in this new life.     After Seth's awakening, he experiences painfully vivid memory relapses. He slowly begins to remember what life use to be, all the horrible times in his past, and good times which would sometimes end up being more painful for him to experience. Most importantly, Seth remembers his boyfriend, Gudmund, and his brother, Owen, and begins to miss them. Seth becomes lonely, depressed, and desperate for there to be anything good in what he thinks is some sort of hell. When he finally starts to give out, he finds food, water, decent clothes, and later actual people.     After Seth meets Regine and Tomasz, they seem to show somewhat of an understanding of the world. One theory was that everyone was hooked up to the internet, and “permanently” logged-on because their actual lives were horrible, or some other reason. They also thought that there were other people like them, from the area, still logged-on inside the big prison. But, Seth doesn't believe any of this, and just thinks it's all in his head which is why good things only happened when he really hoped for it. This idea ends up being proven wrong after he foolishly tries to put an end to the Driver, a deadly thing that patrols the prison.     Towards the ending of the book, Seth sets out for the prison to try and possibly develop a better understanding of everything, and to also see if there are others in the prison. He awfully finds people still online, and his parents, but no Owen. The Driver ends up being killed later on by Tomasz, and Seth is also later able to remember well enough the missing truth. The Driver was their caretaker, and the memories that they thought they had were actually from the simulation of the real world, which they made because they thought it would be a better life than their initial one. Owen wasn't hooked up to the Internet because he really died, and existed in the simulation. After seeing that Regine could go back to the fake world that she had died in, it becomes obvious that all the simulations are connected as one whole other world, and that they can alert others stuck online by also going back online. Seth then takes the privilege of entering the other world to try and help everyone find their way back to reality.     In conclusion, whenever Seth did dare to hope in the story, things got more better for him than when he would give up. Something many people tend to lack is the urge to hope, because they lack optimism. Dreams never end, but are only abandoned, and Seth really dwells on his dreams of finding the truth. Hope is something that is never truly lost, but found; something Seth truly demonstrates.