The Knife of Never Letting Go - Reviewed by Maggie Devero

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Reviewed by Maggie Devero

In a town of all males where they can hear, picture, and sense each other's every once-private thought, there isn't a moment of silence for any of them...or is there?

From the moment Prentisstown was first formed, then known as new Elizabeth of the New World, all could hear each other's thoughts. No longer were they blessed with any privacy from their neighborly folk, with every inward comment and image being transmitted to the mind of all others nearby. Nor was it limited to human beings, for they could hear the thoughts of animals and vice versa. This invasion of thinking became known as Noise, and was something men could do nothing to change. Though not all were able to deal with it, along with the fact that the Noise germ killed all women....so the choice was to either live with it or not live at all.

In one months time, Todd Hewitt, the last member of Prentisstownt to turn thirteen and officially become a man, will come of age. This means all secrets among the older men will become his own as well, along with the duties they must accomplish. But that day, exactly a month before, Todd and his dog Manchee come across multiple things never seen before; an actual book (specifically his mothers journal), a girl, and a gaping silence in all the Noise. He escapes the town, and begins running for his life. Running and hiding from those who he knows best, and all the secrets they've managed to keep from him. But how can one hide from others, if their every thought can be heard?

Oh man, this book was honestly so great. Five out of five stars, definitely. The storyline was constantly moving, all kinds of twists and turns thrown in there, which kept the book interesting from cover to cover. The reoccurrence of old characters and introduction of new ones wasn't as chaotic as one would think, and especially with some characters helped the storyline along even better. Todd was perfectly portrayed as the thirteen year old he is, and the lack more-or-less of a romantic development between main characters allowed for no annoying distractions. Also the way the animals thought was portrayed was extremely accurate as one would assume (and personally, my FAVORITE character was Manchee, his dog). The way the book is written helps the reader delve deeper into this "New World," for example when he gives a whole page on how Noise feels like, or running on his sentences with no punctuation so that they really feel like inner thoughts instead of spoken/written words. And the HUGE cliffhanger the book ends on (which only leaves the reader dying for the next book) is the only complaint I can think of for this book. I loved it, and would recommended it to anyone interested in reading dystopian, scifi, thriller or action books. Patrick Ness has written the second and third books in this Chaos Walking trilogy, along with multiple shorts stories accompanying it, which I would suggest to anyone who enjoyed this book. :)