Read in August 2015

Review originally written on Instagram & Goodreads – edited and extended here for the purpose of the blog, using notes from the time

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness

Series Status: The 1st book in the Chaos Walking trilogy

Publisher: Walker Books

Number of Pages: 479 + 28 bonus “short story” pages

 

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(Found on the back cover – click here to view a different synopsis on Goodreads)

 

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets.

Then, just one month away from the birthday that will make Todd Hewitt a man, he unexpectedly stumbles on a spot of complete silence. Which is impossible.

After owning this book for over a year, I finally decided to pick it up and see if it lived up to all of the hype. Many of my favourite booktubers loved this book, so I was intrigued to see if I would agree with them.

I found the idea behind the book really unique and started to enjoy the story from very early on. I liked how it was written, as it made the book seem like a form of diary for the main character, and was spoken in his voice. Sometimes the wording or spelling would bother me slightly, because things would be spelled wrong on purpose to further the point of the story being written by Todd Hewitt – a thirteen year old with a little education from his carers.

The story is set in the New World, in a place called Prentisstown. This town only includes men, and they can all hear each others thoughts, constantly. I struggle to imagine what that would be like -nowhere is quiet and everybody knows what you’re thinking, all the time. No privacy whatsoever. There are a few pages that did help me imagine how overpowering this could be, as it wasn’t just written down. The other men’s thoughts would be scrawled all over the page.

Pages like this only happen a few times in the entire book, but they were really effective in showing you what it was like to be Todd Hewitt.

The New World follows a thirteen month calendar, so while Todd is thirteen in the beginning of this series, in our time he would actually be fourteen. I couldn’t believe how young the main characters were at first, but I didn’t see it as an issue overall. The characters weren’t any less entertaining to read about. I loved the fact that Manchee – Todd’s dog – had a voice in the Noise too. It was quite entertaining to read a dog’s thoughts.

The journey made through the story really showed how certain events can change a person, with the characters reactions seeming genuine and realistic. I was surprised by how much I liked the main characters, as they were younger than expected, however they had strong personalities and adapted well throughout the story, so they didn’t seem as young as they were. Sure, there were moments you could tell how young they were, but  it wouldn’t be overbearing or ruin the story at all – in fact, it supported the world building aspect, since it showed how people would mature and become an adult at a younger age.

The story itself was pretty much like a roller-coaster – just when you think everything is calming down, some other twist would come along and the characters are back up and running.

The ending though.

The ending took a very different turn of events and left me highly intrigued. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be picking up the 2nd and 3rd books!

Rated 4//5 stars!

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