"Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone
can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of
Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and
his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or
not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where
privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful
that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.
But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear
your every thought?"
Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos
Walking #1)
Author: Patrick Ness
Release Date: May 5, 2008
Publisher: Walker
Pages: 496, Hardcover (Read: Kindle Edition)
"And there's yer lesson. There ain't nothing good
that don't got real bad waiting to follow it."-The Knife of Never Letting Go, pg. 216
The Knife of Never Letting Go wasn't on my
radar until I watched Priscilla from The
Readables' video review. After watching the review, I KNEW I had to read
The Knife of Never Letting Go.
Dystopian, action-packed, a male's POV--and, what? Hardly any romance. You'd
think that I would shy away from this book because of the lack of romance,
since it's certainly out of my comfort zone. However, something about this
different dystopian world caught my eye. Truth be told, The Knife of Never Letting Go certainly did not disappoint.
First off, creativity.
THE FREAKING CREATIVITY. Patrick Ness,
you are a man of imagination. I believe that this series was published a little
before dystopian novels became "the new thing", so it's definitely
different than all of the others. In Todd Hewitt's world, their world is named
New World. This is the new planet they live on, where as our world, Old World,
is destroyed and terrible. Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown with Ben and
Cillian, his two guardians. The most important things: everyone can hear every
living thing's thoughts. The Noise. Todd Hewitt is the last boy (not yet man)
in Prentisstown. And there are no women alive in Prentisstown.
When Todd Hewitt finds
a "hole" in the Noise, he is suddenly in deep trouble, and is on the
run. He is accompanied by Manchee (SO ADORBS. Totally reminds me of the dog
from the movie "Up"!). Todd Hewitts meets some different people along
the way, and is soon accompanied by Viola, a girl. From there, the story takes
off into an action-packed adventure and discovery.
I loved the plot. But
at some parts in the story, I found that it became a little repetitive. But
that's totally fine, because it hardly bothered me. Each place on New World was
different and creative and I LOVED IT. The characters, were PERFECT. Not perfect
of course, but very well-developed. The bad guys were perfectly mean and
naaasty. Todd, Viola, and Manchee are very cooperative and everything fit very
well together, like a puzzle piece. The characters were just simply great.
*There is a pre-short story that is called The New World which is about Viola's time on the ship, before she
arrived to New World. I think that it is not necessary to read it, but it
definitely gave me a better understanding of Viola's character and personality*
There is something
else that is unique about The Knife of Never
Letting Go: the language. When I first started reading, I thought they
were typos. Haha. Nope, they are the language/spelling of Prentisstown. For
example, "station" would be spelled "stayshun". It took
awhile to get used to, but after a while you get used to it and it not longer
is a nuisance.
I cannot wait to see
what's next. The Knife of Never Letting Go
kind of left on a cliffhanger, so I'm definitely eager to see what happens in
the next installment, The Ask and the Answer.
I recommend this to everyone who likes a dystopian that is action-packed with
no romance involved. Definitely different (in a good way)!
