Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness


Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: Young Adult/ Science Fiction

Todd Hewitt knows nothing other than his life in Prentisstown. To his knowledge, Prentisstown is the only surviving settlement in the new world and that there are no female survivors after the natives called ‘Spackles’ releases a germ that kills all the women in the world. As a side effect of this tragedy all the men in Prentisstown are able to hear each others’ thoughts, a constant presence that Todd has come to know as ‘Noise’.

Nearing his 13th birthday, Todd discovers an area in the swamp where Noise is apparently absent. He informs his adoptive parents, Ben and Cillian of his findings and is suddenly asked to run from Prentisstown. In his journey to escape from the mad men of Prentisstown, he realises that things are not as they seem in his hometown and that there are other surviving settlement outside of Prentisstown.

This book is surprisingly.... GOOD. I was quite skeptical at first and maybe was turned off a bit by Todd’s Huckleberry Finn-like accent but by the third chapter I was hooked. The Knife of Never Letting Go had many action packed, near-death scenes that it kept me reading at the edge of my seat. The pacing of the story line and the tense action scenes reminded me somewhat of the Hunger Games.

My only grouse is the cliff hanger ending, which is just a way for the author to keep you reading (or buying) the next book in the series; The Ask and the Answer. Thank God I picked this up when all three books from the series are out on sale already or else I’d be one frustrated reader!

No comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails