Review: The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking #1)

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking #1)

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia

Score: ❤❤❤❤

Page Count: 478

Book #1 of the Chaos Walking series

Publisher: Walker

Published: May 5, 2008

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is. 

Review:

PROS:

1. First off, I'm back from my mini hiatus so hurray for that! A few weeks ago I went book shopping with a couple of my friends and was really encouraged to pick this book up after hearing really awesome things about it from one of those friends who heard amazing reviews from one of her friends. Yay friendship. I had been meaning to read this book for YEARS but never got around to picking up a copy. I found one at said bookstore and knew that I was not going home without this book in my hands. I started reading it and after a busy three weeks, I finally got to finish it. So, here's the review!

2. The first thing I noticed about this book was the writing style. I absolutely adored it because of a few specific reasons. One is that it was a very big part of the world building and set the perfect tone for the story. Todd Hewitt lives in a very rough and hard working landscape with others who don't really think too highly of reading and even writing or any type of proper grammar. Seeing words such as 'derekshun' and 'confushun' made the book feel very raw and almost desolate. It put me right into the mood and setting of this book from the very first page which I really enjoyed. The use of punctuation is also very scattered, some scenes filling up an entire page without commas or periods which kept the story moving at a fast pace and made it exciting to read. With almost magical descriptions thrown in here and there, I was hooked from the first page.

3. The characters were also very interesting and fun to follow, even the villains. Todd Hewitt is a very smart young man despite his lack of reading skills. He is very resourceful and doesn't at all have a problem with speaking his mind, pun not intended. Todd isn't afraid to ask questions or stand up for himself or another and fight back. He's also very confident in his actions and is very stubborn hen it comes to leaving to the ones he cares about behind. Other side characters such as Ben, Cillian, Aaron and even the dog, Manchee, are all such neat characters to follow. I really wish the first two had gotten a little more spotlight because I thought they were very strong characters who had too little focus on them. Needless to say, this book just has some amazing characters.

4. I also really loved how fast paced the book was while still giving you enough information as a reader to understand some of the governmental thinking and interpretations of justice within Prentisstown. As you go along with Todd and his journey to finding out the truth of Prentisstown and what the people have been hiding from him for his entire life, you get bits of action, heart-pounding scenes, suspense, even some comedic moments that had me laughing for a good while. You also get some surprising revelations, interesting facts about the town and their history as well as some sad truths and nothing but adventure. I absolutely loved this book and I'm excited to find out what happens next in the series!

CONS:

1. The only thing I didn't really like about this book was simply that some of the elements were a little repetitive. I have one in mind that may or may not be a spoiler so I'll just say that at one point, I was starting to get a little annoyed at a reoccurring event, even though it was well placed within the story so as not to feel random. 

Overall, I do really want to continue reading this series because I just need to know what happens next in the story! The ending was such a cliffhanger that I was in denial of the last page being exactly that. I NEED MORE.

 I highly recommend this series if you're a fan of such books as Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner and Uglies. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this book review! Read on, bookworms! See you in the next chapter!