The Rest of Us Just Live Here

In the car ride home from her campaign launch announcement, Mikey’s mother tells him that went into politics because she believes the world is fundamentally unsafe. Mikey suspects that she experienced a supernatural incursion in her youth, but she won’t share this information. Why is Mikey’s mother so closed-off about the experiences of her youth? How does her reservedness impact Mikey?

Mikey’s grandmother appears twice in the novel, but her appearances serve little relevance to the plot. What is the narrative impact of Mikey’s grandmother’s presence in the book? What does Ness choose to include her, and what does she reveal about the characters around her?

How does Mikey’s use of the second person and breaking the fourth wall impact the reading experience? Choose a passage where Mikey directly addresses the reader. How would this passage be changed if Mikey didn’t do so?

Both Mikey’s mother and Jared’s father are local political figures, but neither of their political affiliations are ever directly mentioned. What commentary, if any, does this novel create about American politics and the way politics impacts teenagers?

At the end of Chapter the Ninth, Mikey hears a voice telling him to “Look closer” (130). Ness never directly explains who this voice belongs to. Who is the disembodied voice, and what does it represent? Why is it significant that Mikey hears this voice at this juncture?

The novel features multiple instances of characters arguing about the usefulness of metaphors—once when Nathan and Mikey argue about the longevity of metaphorical bees (169-70), and once when the group deliberates about what the burning of the school represents symbolically (316). What commentary is Ness offering about the uses and pitfalls of interpretation?

After the car accident, Henna describes Mikey as a “fontanelle”— the soft spot on top of a baby’s head. What is the symbolic and imagistic significance of this reference? How does this reference characterize Henna’s perspective on Mikey?

In the end, Satchel finally defeats the Immortals by blowing up the school, foreshadowed in the first chapter when Jared hopes they won’t do so “again.” Ness offers no detail about how this occurs or why this finally ended the conflict. What is the significance of this repeated occurrence at the high school? Is this choice thematically pertinent? Why or why not?