Trigger warnings for mentions of suicide and eating disorders. 
 The idea of this book is to explore the lives of people that aren't the Chosen One(tm), the people that don't seem to get caught up in world-ending disasters, that don't have some connection to the supernatural or the extraordinary. It is a contemporary novel set in a world full of intrusive fantasy. The everyday struggles of the characters are juxtaposed by brief synopsis of the Chosen Ones' struggles. And Ness did it so well. I had heard from a lot of reviewers that while the concept of this book was intriguing the book just didn't quite deliver and I must respectfully hugely disagree. Perhaps it is because I went into this book with low expectations that I enjoyed it so much. But love it I did. I can only imagine that a lot of the parody was lost on some of these reviewers or else they were looking for a different kind of story than the synopsis promised. Put simply this book does two things: it parodies Chosen One adventure and coming of age stories and it tells a contemporary-style coming of age story. 
 I mean instead of the Chosen One battling monsters and comes of age we get the story of teenagers battling the struggles of everyday life as they come of age. Leaving your childhood behind to head off to college while also dealing with mental illness, troubles with friendship and unrequited love might sound mundane when paired next to vampires and immortals, but Ness instead manages to highlight that those everyday 'mundane' struggles are actually very, very big. 
 The characters themselves are intensely human and are fleshed out so that we get to see their flaws, fears and intricacies. This is a character driven story, even if a plot driven story is going on in the background. The characters are just so compelling that I was almost immediately hooked by each and every one of them. Now I must mention that I have no experience with OCD or eating disorders and only some experience with anxiety so my opinions on how mental illness was handled in this book comes from a non-ownvoices perspective. That said I think Ness handled it exceedingly well. There were no magical cures, no shaming of needing medication or treatment and it really seemed that if Ness doesn't have first hand experience (not sure if he does?) than he really did his homework. If you want a book that deals with mental illness, particularly OCD and anxiety then I would have to shove this book into your face right away just for that alone. 
 Now as to the other task this book took on: parody. This book was, in my opinion, a phenomenal parody of Chosen One narratives as well as popular YA intrusive fantasies (the fantasy crashes the party that is the "real" world as we know it). From love triangles to protagonist names to vampire romances this book parodies a lot of material in a way that is unobtrusive yet cannot failed to be missed by anyone familiar with them. I appreciated that the book didn't rely on parody to keep it going and so will still mostly make sense to someone who has no experience with Chosen One tropes but are like easter eggs for the initiated. If you like contemporary stories and appreciate fantasy (particularly YA fantasy) then this book is worth your attention.