The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I actually had this book read to me by the great Humphrey Bower on Audible. It's easy to say I automatically fell in love with the book and Bowers narration. Whilst reviewing this book I'm going to try to keep spoilers to a minimum in case anyone out there hasn't read this masterpiece yet. 

The story follows Todd Hewitt who is on the verge of 'manhood' and he lives in Prentisstown, a world without women and where the thoughts of men and “creachers” (his pet dog Manchee included) can be heard. Todd’s father died of illness and his mother was the “last of the women”, according to Ben who is one of two men who are raising him. Amongst the chaos of haring the 'noise' Todd likes to pick apples in the orchard where he can get a break from all of the men's thoughts, memories and secrets. 

Whilst out on a walk with his dog, Manchee, Todd encounters a break in the Noise, a pocket of pure silence and when Todd and Manchee return home, their Noise reveals (with no lack in trying to keep it quiet) reveals what happened in the swamp, and Todd, with Manchee at his heels, a packed bag, Ben’s big hunting knife, and his mom’s journal, is sent away from the only home he’s ever known. 

When Todd encounters a girl on his travels, and comes across towns filled with men and women, everything he has ever known about the world is changed in an instant. The men of Prentisstown are harboring a terrible secret and will stop at absolutely nothing to get Todd back. 

The Knife if Never Letting Go is a fast paced read, gripping and intense. Action packed, without a single boring chapter. There is so much to say about this book, its a tale of many things, its not for the faint hearted to, containing scenes of murder and other adult like themes. As you can also expect, this isn't the only book as it does indeed belong to a series called Chaos Walking which also includes The Ask and The Answer and Monsters of Men which are the following 2 majors books to the series but Chaos also includes 3 mini books as I like to call them which add more detail to the adventure. I personally can not wait to get my hands on all of the other books as I loved this one just soooo much. I cant score it any less than a 5/5 after saying that anyway so it does indeed get a 5/5 from me.

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Of The Most Unique Books I've Read

Let There Be Linda - Rich Leder

Summary Justice - John Fairfax

The Dry - Jane Harper

More Than This - Patrick Ness

SweetPea - CJ Skuse

Risen - M.T Miller

Raven's Peak - Lincoln Cole

Everyday - David Levithan

The Sign Of One - Eugene Lambert

The Edge Of Juniper - Lora Richardson

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted weekly by The Broke And The Bookish

More Than This - Patrick Ness

Synopsis:

A boy drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. He dies.

Then he wakes, naked and bruised and thirsty, but alive.

How can this be? And what is this strange deserted place?

As he struggles to understand what is happening, the boy dares to hope. Might this not be the end? Might there be more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife?

Review:

I've been wanting this book for a long long time, every time I've seen it in the shop I've wanted to pick it up but never actually gotten around to doing so. I used my 1 free credit from audible and then spent 11 hours listening to the majestic voice of Nick Podehl.

I had no idea about the actual plot of the story, I just knew the synopsis and that was it really, the rest of the plot was a pure mystery so its safe to say I was pleasantly surprised when the plot really begun to unravel. I really don't know what to say about this book, I've really lost a major part of my vocabulary.

The last thing Seth remembers is dying, he can remember how it felt to struggle against the waves and the feeling of his shoulder snapping and then the agonising pain of his skull breaking and irreparable damage to his body has been done. The next thing he knows, he's thirsty, bruised and naked but he's alive beyond all odds. He begins to believe that the familiar now abandoned place in which he lives is his own personal hell, where he's left wondering if there really is more than this but then on one day once the dreams (which help us gain background information on our MC) he has when he sleeps get too painful for him, he makes a choice to go out for a run on the next clear day, a run that massively changes the whole thing.

At the rate of which things were going for the first however darn long it was, I thought Seth and his dreams were all we were going to have which would develop into some other situation but the way the book went took me by surprise. We end up with more characters other than the ones in his dreams/memories. Regine and Tomasz are great characters who entertained me. All 3 of them together is literally 3 parts of my soul. Tomasz is a younger boy who is actually so adorable my heart bleeds for him, he's so thoughtful and wise even though he's sensitive and strong. Regine is strong and independent and capable of so much. We do end up  finding out what happened to both of the new characters which is somewhat the same as what had happened to Seth.

The book does get you thinking, second guessing, trying to figure everything out but what's great I that even at the end of the book you don't really know what is happening or anything, you've just
been on this journey and you've had this experience and had such a thrilling time but leave none the wiser. Usually that would annoy me but this time, this is the exception, its amazing sort of like The Matrix and Inception mixed.

I've adored Patrick Ness' work since I read A Monster Calls around about like 4 years ago? ever since I've been walking into book stores and seeing more of his books and I've always wanted to buy them but never actually picked them up since I listened tot his on Audible, I cant wait to read The Rest of Us Just Live Here. Patrick just has a way of writing that just makes you adore his work and everything.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a book to read, its easy to get into an you could easily read it in 2 days, also its great to listen to it on Audible, really soothing and immersive. It would definitely make a great movie. Its a 5/5 from me and a definite must read.

Top Ten Tuesday - Authors I'm Dying To Meet/ Authors I Can't Believe I've Met

I've met 3 authors but unfortunately I didn't get photo's with 2 out of the 2 but here are the 3 I've met so far. All 3 of these women are beautiful, amazing, empowering and bloody awesome.

Holly Smale

Holly Bourne

C.J. Daugherty

The last 7 of this list will be authors I want to meet, its going to be 7 I can pick off the top of my head even though there are many many more than 7.

Mark Hill

Jane Harper




Stephanie Garber




Peter Monn




John Green




Eugene Lambert


Patrick Ness




Top Ten Tuesday is hosted weekly by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Tuesday - : Ten Books I Really Love But Feel Like I Haven't Talked About Enough/In A While

If I Stay - Gayle Forman

Hell's Horizon - D.B.Shan

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

An Abundance Of Katherines - John Green

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

The One Thing - Marci Lyn Curtis

Geek Girl All That Glitters - Holly Smale

The Dean Machine - Dylan Lee Peters

Memphis Hoodoo Murders - Kathryn Rogers

Everything Everything - Nicola Yoon

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Top Ten Tuesday - Auto Buy Authors

 

Being low on funds, I'm working this list about authors who's books I would automatically buy if I could. I usually find it hard to ask for things, mostly because I think money could be spent other ways for the better and not on me, but my mom always says when I eventually ask to buy something either in store or from the internet (usually books) that I rarely have anything so of course I can. I still don't ask often, I treat it as a kind of reward of sorts so even though the list contains auto buy authors its going to be 'if I could afford to buy them.'



J.K.Rowling

 

 

 

Holly Smale

 

 

 

 Patrick Ness

 

 

 

Carrie Hope Fletcher

 

 

 

 

Giovanna Fletcher

 

 

 

John Green

 

 

 

Darren Shan

 

Veronica Roth

 

 

 

Suzanne Collins

 

 

 

Stephen King

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at The Broke And The Bookish

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness

"Conor has had the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that dont quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight when he wakes, theres a visitor at his window. Its an ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth." 

Thirteen-year-old Conor has nightmares. He's losing his mother to cancer and he's losing himself, becoming detached from his own life and others. Every night he dreams a truth he does not want to face. One night, he hears a monster calling his name, and sees it walk from its place to his window. But he's not scared. There are worse monsters, and this is not the monster he was expecting.

This monster, an ancient kind of being in the form of a yew tree that has the ability to heal. He has come walking, because Conor had called him. And it wants to scare him. To tell him stories. To make him admit the truth of his fear, that he faces every night when he falls asleep.

The book is based around several concepts, but most of all Family, Illness and the ability to heal. but also the story is about stories, the strength of the stories we tell each other, and how they can affect us. Stories we tell can hurt and heal us if we use them for that purpose. as always this is a story that tells a story, it isn't rare to find a story within a story.The monster tells the stories, but they don't turn out quite as we might expect from our knowledge of childhood fairy tales.

The plot of Conor's story is quite simple. It is a journey of learning to heal, so there isn't a whole lot of anything even though some action, like his encounters with the school bully, and the clock at his grandmother's house. But mostly there is a lot of character development, and simple events that mould the family in the mist of illness.

I would recommend A Monster Calls to nearly any reader. Older teens might be put off by the young lead character or the simple story, but I hope you'll (if you're reading this) try it anyway. Some readers might find the monster frightening, but it is the best kind of frightening. The kind that shows you that maybe there wasn't so much to fear after all.

Even though the cover is quite intimidating and dark it isn't all that much scary, there is some violence but only of the bully kind. it is a deep story that you may interpret differently than to what I did, but I hope if you do indeed read it that you embrace it's many meanings. 

Book Rating:

5/5