The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-9

Chapters 10-13

Chapters 14-17

Chapters 18-21

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Background

Cultural Context: “The Chosen One” Trope

“The Chosen One” is a literary trope, often seen in YA fiction and coming-of-age stories, in which the protagonist is figured as the inevitable hero of the story. Sometimes this predestination comes in the form of a prophecy (as in the Harry Potter series) or happens on account of the protagonist’s lineage (as in the case of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars). When a writer engages this trope, it often creates a sense of narrative certainty: Because the protagonist’s fate is inextricably connected to the resolutions of the narrative’s tensions, the reader knows that the protagonist will persist through to the story’s climax and be an active agent in the resolution of the story’s conflicts.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here very deliberately engages and subverts “The Chosen One” trope. Mikey and his friends attend a high school populated by Chosen Ones whom Mikey refers to as “the indie kids.” The indie kids are off fighting battles that the other high schoolers know very little about—in recent years, they’ve staved off a vampire invasion and, as the novel progresses, they deal with an incursion of otherworldly beings called The Immortals. Though The Rest of Us Just Live Here does summarize the trials of the indie kids in brief introductions at the start of each chapter, the novel centers the lives of high schoolers who have no set destiny and don’t aspire to accomplish any world-altering feats before graduation. By focusing on the lives of characters who are explicitly not Chosen Ones, Ness intentionally subverts the sense of certainty that comes of Chosen One narratives. This lack of certainty is thematically crucial for Mikey’s arc over the course of the novel, as he struggles to come to terms with the knowledge that he will need to leave his family and friends after graduation and, by the time he gets to college, his whole world will be changed.

Literary Context: Metafiction

Metafiction is a narrative mode in which the writer calls attention to the fictionality of a piece of fiction, often by playing with narrative structure and literary tropes. Metafiction often works to parody or satirize the narrative forms it engages by reminding the reader of the artificiality of fiction itself.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a metafictional text in a few different ways. Most notably, the novel directly names the “Chosen One” trope and, in creating some characters who are “chosen” and some who are not, opens a space in which to critique the trope. Focusing on the lives of people who are not part of the indie kids’ narrative, but who are still impacted by the choices made by the indie kids, allows Ness to rebut the idea that the only characters whose stories are worth telling are those who have the privilege and power to act as “Chosen Ones.” The novel also rejects the notion of predestination inherent in so many “Chosen One” narratives. In the story’s final pages, Mikey and his friends save an indie kid who was “supposed” to die, thereby altering the indie kids’ fate. Mikey’s friends’ actions—which are more robustly analyzed in the Chapters Analysis for Part 5—suggest that the “Chosen One” trope falsely implies that there are some people whose actions matter and others whose actions don’t.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here also frequently employs the metafictional tool of breaking the fourth wall—an unseen, imagined barrier between the reader and the characters of the story. Mikey frequently speaks directly to the reader, occasionally even asking the reader to compare their own experiences to his own. This technique dissolves the idea that the YA novel can only be engaged by younger readers aspirationally; instead, Mikey quite literally invites the reader to see themselves as part of his story.