Knife of Never Letting Go

I choose this book for my daughter after reading the blurb. This was one of her xmas gifts but I wasn't entirely sure if she would appreciate it.However, apparently, this book had been much talked about in her school library and reading group and she had been keen to try it!Having just finished it, I can honestly say that she was enthralled - and proceeded to relay the entire story back to me, bit by bit, for many nights afterwards! That is how I know it's a good book!Now I'll definitely have to buy her the next two in the trilogy.

A terrific addition to my YA bookshelf, "The Knife of Never Letting Go" is written in a lovely quirky style and has a great story behind it to boot. Todd lives in Prentisstown, a place populated solely by men and boys and the last settlement on the planet. During the war with the "Spackle" a poison was released that killed all the women and left the men able to hear each others thoughts. Known as "the noise" there is never a quiet place to be - but Todd is used to it. Due to become a man on his next birthday, Todd assumes that life will carry on as it has been, until one day whilst taking a walk in the swamp he hears...Silence. But there is no silence is there? Thus starts an adventure that will see Todd discover that everything he thought he could believe in was a lie, and will see him run as far and as fast as he can to search for answers. What I loved about this book: The characters - I can't talk about a lot of them actually because part of the absolute joy of this read was discovering the weird and wonderful world that Patrick Ness has created here - but Todd is a superb and wonderful protagonist and you will be urging him on all the way. Be warned - you may need a tissue or two. At one point in this book I cried so hard that I couldnt actually read it for a while - you'll see. I loved that I felt this distressed - it told me that what I was reading was, well, GOOD. There is plenty of adventure to be had, lots and lots of shouting at the book to be done (Again you'll see) and in general its a stonking good novel that can be enjoyed by adults and children alike. With two more books to go before resolution I can't wait for the next adventure. Fantastic.

I was completely engrossed by this book even though I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Young Adult ... It is a ridiculously good roller-coaster ride and when I got to the end I was absolutely DESPERATE to get on it again - hurray for trilogies!I won't precis this with a synopsis as you can get that elsewhere. What I will say is that this is a story that tackles BIG themes with absolute panache: the writing is so deceptively simple and charming that it flies off the page and it's only afterwards you realise that you're thinking about proper, grown-up hard-to-face issues.Equally don't be deceived by the simple charm of the language. This book's really not all tender flowers and birdsong. Trust me. There are moments in this book that are so brutal it took me a while to get over them. But therein lies its power: it smacks you in the head and heart BECAUSE it's written so innocently.Man, I loved this book.I'd recommend to anyone who loves words and worlds.

In short, this novel is the best that I have reviewed for my blog so far.Although I appreciate that some people will not gel with the incredibly bleak story and the unusual narrative style, I certainly would recommend that everyone gives a try. The story is incredibly complex and full of dark twists, while the characters are interested and noticeably develop as the story progresses.However, what I found by far and away the most interesting thing was the concept. The story is very unique and raises some interesting moral questions, including what it means to be a man and the ethical ramifications about what a world would be like where nothing could be kept secret.The only real problem I had with the story was the ending, as I felt the cliffhanger was nothing more than a cheap way to make the reader continue the story (which was pointless - the novel was so good that I would have done so anyway!).

This book made me physically ache with joy, pain, hope and despair. It has the most beautiful, equal relationship at the centre of it between two, well, children really - at least by chronological age.The setting is kind of Sci-Fi/Western. The pioneer way-of-life, the fact that these people came together as "settlers" on a new planet, allows for Todd's strange combination of maturity and childishness, practical knowledge and social ignorance.In Prentisstown, there are no women, they all died over a decade before the story begins, and "Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise." Todd's struggles to filter and control the "Noise" - a world of information overload with no escape, no way to filter out or mask the unwanted thoughts and feelings except to try to hide them in plain view by putting out other thoughts to blur the "Noise" you make - made my heart go out to him.This book found my vulnerabilities and spoke to them.Everyone's response to this book will be different. because this is one of those books that tells you as much about yourself as it does about the characters portrayed. Patrick Ness might well become one of my favourite authors because of his ability to do just that.