Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go
Author: Patrick Ness
Series: Chaos Walking #1
Published: 2008 by Candlewick Press
Version: Paperback
Obtained: Purchased

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.
But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

 

 

First Sentence:
“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.”

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I think I need to read this again right away to understand everything that was thrown at me. I just…loved so much about this book. It’s excellent, and I need to work on getting the sequels really soon!

So here we are in a New World. It takes some reading to learn all there is to know about this place, and I think that’s partially what makes this such a great read. It’s not like some dystopians where the first few chapters are dedicated to explaining all there is to know. Ness takes his time in explaining his world and that makes it feel very thought out and intricate (which it is). Anyways, New World isn’t like anything you’ve read of before. It’s a pretty crazy place that got pretty messed up real fast. Todd is just a twelve-year-old about to be a man at thirteen and he’s almost as naïve as the reader.

But it doesn’t take long for reality to catch up to Todd as he gets shoved out into the world he knows nothing about. He slowly learns secrets about his world that change everything he has been raised to believe. Something very bad is happening in New World and it centers around him, the last boy in Prentisstown. Todd is the perfect narrator for this story and mainly the reason The Knife of Never Letting Go is so incredibly fantastic. He makes it what it is and it is stunning. He is reluctant to change his perceptions even when he knows he must. He has a hard time trusting other people. He has human, normal flaws that create the best narrators. I cannot wait to see where his journey will take him and how he will change.

This whole concept of Noise kind of freaks me out. I couldn’t stand to hear everyone’s thoughts or have people hear mine. It’s just such an original concept and it works in scaring the reader. I’m very interested in learning more about this Noise in the other two books.

I always love books more when they’re not afraid to change up the fonts. It’s just something stupid that I like, but I think it makes the reading experience more fun! I enjoy a change up. The parts that were other people’s Noise was always in a different font depending on the person. And the full pages of it were also great.

Anyways, so I will definitely continue reading this series because Todd is an incredibly relatable narrator and the other evil characters are so evil I just…I hate them. Also, it ended with a cliffhanger!! Time to go out and buy the two sequels!

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Content Warning: Occasional curse words including one use of the “f” word.

Rating: