Sunday 30 August 2015

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

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1)The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Knife of Never Letting Go is classified as a children's, or young-adult book. That is not the case at all. This book is dark, disturbing and full of bad language.
The main character is Todd, who is just shy of becoming a man. Living in Prentisstown he is not particularly well educated, struggling to read and write. As Todd is the main narrator in this story initially this was an issue for me. I understand that the author is providing authenticity, but reading through spelt at 'thro' really grated on me. However, as I became more involved in the story, this issue went away and I was so engrossed I didn't care about the spelling mistakes.
Since arriving on the New World, humanity has caught a disease known as Noise. This enables everyone to hear everyone else's thoughts, although is fatal for women (which we later learn not to be true).
The Noise is dealt with superbly, in my opinion. It doesn't become distracting but adds to each characters nuances. It can also change colour, like an aura. Not only are humans infected, but so are animals, which allows Todd to communicate with Manchee, his pet pooch. However, despite females being immune to the noise, female animals are infected. It's one of the things you probably shouldn't think about too much.
Todd lives at home with Ben and Cillian, his adoptive parents. Upon returning from the swamp one afternoon, he is packed with a bag and told to run as far away from Prentisstown as soon and as quickly as possible. Cue adventures.
Todd meets Viola on the outskirts of Pretisstown. Patrick Ness handles Todd and Viola's cautious teenage relationship very well. There's no inkling of romance but a strong sense that one can't live without the other.
The plot itself is quite 'samey', lots of running, lots of fighting. This can get a bit repetitive, but the desire to know and make sense of everything really kept me going.
The main villain of the piece, Aaron, a preacher of course, is quite one dimensional. Maybe that's the point? But the amount of times he 'returns from the dead' is ridiculous, bordering on comical! Actually, having finished this book, I'm not entirely sure he's dead now!
Although not an entirely original idea I felt that Ness executed it well. I cared for the characters. When Todd killed the Spackle I experienced his guilt and horror. When he was ill I could put myself in his shoes.
The section with the singing cows I felt was written beautifully. It was like I could hear them, and that the sound was so pure.
The collection of smaller characters that popped up along the way were all well realised and served their purpose. Todd's encounters with anyone outside Prentisstown were enlightening and made me even more intrigued.
Now, the big moment. In fact the defining moment of the book. The death of Manchee. I can count the number of times I have cried at novels on my left hand. But that short moment left me sobbing and longing to cuddle my two dogs who were fast asleep downstairs. I had to stop reading, put the book aside and give myself a moment. The fact that Ness can produce that feeling in me is a whole star just on it's own. 'Todd?' will have a whole new meaning for me from now onwards.
This unique book took me on a roller coaster of emotions and feelings (not to mention the MASSIVE cliffhanger at the end of the novel, although I thought Haven would be completely abandoned) and I'm intrigued to find out where the story will go. So very strong 4.5 for me. It would have been five if Aaron hadn't turned up quite so many times.

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