I absolutely love this book! The plot is amazing, the description and detail is fantastic, and the characters are so real and deep. It did take me a while to really get into this book, but once I got used to the writing style I really appreciated it. It didn't really start off slow, just the writing was not what I was used to. But before I knew it I couldn't put it down and started to love everything about the writing. Heres a tip: don't give up because you don't think you like the writing. Its really different and thats what made me love it all the more. Once you actually get into the more fast-paced scenes, you will love it. I definitely did! The characters were another great thing about this book: you can't help but think of them as real people. When one person hurt, I hurt. I connected with all of them and even cried my eyes out twice. Ness really is a fantastic writer, and I love everythinng about this book. I love how the chapters arn't too long or too short, how Todd's feelings change frequently and overtime (like everyones do), and how there is just enough romance to keep readers intrest, while not overpowering the book. I loved, loved, loved it!!

The main character, Todd, sacrifices the life of his dog to save a girl he's just met. As the dog dies, he's screaming Todd's name, and Todd chooses a complete stranger. It's violent against animals and people, and also full of what I would call racism against the "ugly spackles." Don't read it if you like animals, and don't let your kids read it. Don't buy it for your library if you're a librarian.

Life can get very noisy when you hear the thoughts of all those around you. Todd Hewitt has grown up on such a planet. He is the first generation born on New World, and has never known any other type of life. He has always heard the thoughts of all the men around him. From a young age he's heard the stories of how the indigenous population, the Spackle, released a Noise Germ that infected all the men and animals and killed all the women. He is the last child left in Prentisstown, and when he has his thirteenth birthday in one month, he will become a man. Todd doesn't question his life and planet until one day he is in the swamp collecting apples, when he hears something unexpected, rather he doesn't hear something. He notices an area with no sound. He has never experienced this before. Viola has no experience on New World, she has just arrived and is totally unprepared for what and who she finds. I so want to tell you more about this world but that would spoil the story for you. It is definitely a coming of age story for both Todd and Viola, but also for the settlers to the planet. They have been there over twenty years, but they are still adjusting to hearing everyone elses' thoughts. Their plans for a new society could not work with this 'hearing' and they have splintered into many small settlements that are out of contact with each other. There are several interesting characters in this story. Recently,Todd had been given his first dog. He didn't want one, but he and Manchee become inseparable over the first few chapters. I grew quickly to like him. He played a larger roll than expected of a dog. From the first moment I was introduced to Aaron, I despised him. If he lived near me, I would go out of my way to avoid him. Something very creepy about him. The Mayor of Prentisstown is a secretive man. He gathers his men to him and they do mental exercises that Todd doesn't understand. What is he preparing for or is he just trying to teach the men some control such that they can live together in a more peaceful manner. It is interesting how the various small communities have found very different methods for dealing with this noise that the men hear. Each seems to work, though some seem much more effective than others. I wonder if the planet born generations will fare better than the earth born settlers. Guess I will have to keep reading and find out. Thanks to author Patrick Ness for a thought provoking story. This is the first book in a trilogy. it is followed by The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men.

i've given a lot of these dystopian series a try- divergent, the maze runner and now the first choas book. neither divergent or maze runner satisfied my need to read another great series like the hunger games. ness's first book of this series is not bad better than i thought. my expectations were lower, because the last series i started with the first books were a disappointment. i will always try to find another series just as good as hunger games- have not succeeded. i agree with other reviewers that this is an emotional roller coaster the reader is angry, depressed, anxious and happy for the characters in this book. themes: coming of age, learning, truth, friendship, death, loss, pain, suffering it is true this book is sad. ness does a good job of making the reader feel for the characters and situation. not as great as people say it is and it is a page turner. just didn't have me running out to the book store half way through to purchase the rest of the series. with a cliffhanger ending it may persuade me to purchase the 2nd novel.

This book comes close to the most philosophical fiction I have ever read. This book has everything I would want in a dystopian novel and even exceeds by love for Orwell's 1984. Every character is perfectly written and the plot wonderfully paced. An adventure that is sure not to be missed!

This and other reviews can be found on http://readingbetweenclasses.blogspot.com/ Cover Impressions: This cover looks rather primitive, as if it was gleaned from a cave drawing. I don't find it particularly eye catching but I can see where it would appeal to an audience of teenage boys The Gist: Todd has grown up in Prentisstown; a town full of men who spend their lives surrounded by the Noise of each and every person's thoughts. Just a month shy of becoming a man, he stumbles upon a patch of silence - something he has never encountered before, and the secret forces him to run from the people who know his every thought. Review: I had saved this novel for a time when I just had to read something great. It has wonderful reviews and has won several award so I thought it was a safe bet. I never dreamed how wrong I could be. I was angry and frustrated for most of this book. I spent my time yelling at the characters and cursing the writer. This was not an enjoyable experience. First of all, I did not care one lick for either of the characters. In fact, I actively despised Todd. I hated the way he spoke, I hated his actions, I hated the fact that he did not demand answers, because lord knows the author was not going to provide any. I don't mind novels that ration information, handing it out a tidbit at a time like Charlie nibbling on a scrumdiddlyumptious bar, but this novel gives no tidbits. Instead, it infuriates with lines like "it is time you knew the truth" followed by either and adult telling the kids to wait or something trying to kill them (something is ALWAYS trying to kill them - see below). Perhaps, since Todd cannot seem to spell Information, Ness decided that he didn't need to have any. I realize that the author made a conscious choice to use misspelling and poor grammar to allow the reader further insight into the mind of the main character. However, I do not care. I hated it. I cringed at every "aint" and "shun". I wanted to plant Todd in my English classroom and teach him how to speak so that he doesn't sound like a bumbling idiot. I couldn't concentrate on the story because every time he opened his mouth the evil teacher in my mind kept correcting him. Ness also chose to use repetition and short choppy sentence, one would assume, in an effort to make the novel more exciting. It drove me nuts. Passages like this: And she lets go of me- And I jump across- And I'm in the air- And the edge of the falls is shooting over my head- And I land- And I turn- And she's jumping after me- And I grab her and we fall backwards onto the ledge together- And we lay there breathing- And listening- And all we hear for a second is the roar of the water over us now- He employs this strategy over and over, sometimes for pages at a time. That's right, I said PAGES! This writing style annoyed me to the point where I really wanted to stop. Yet I pressed on, I had hope that there would be some twist or scene that would make it all worthwhile. I mean, something had to make all these people like it, right? Speaking of Hope. If the only thing keeping the characters going is hope, how about you give me some? These characters were attacked at every point. They never got a chance to rest before one of the main villians (one of which REFUSES TO DIE LIKE A PROPER HUMAN BEING) shows up and trounces them. The attackers have brute force, horses and guns. Our MC has ... a knife.... which he refuses to use. Also, you would think, at one of their stops on this journey they MIGHT have picked up a weapon for Viola. Fate (in the form of Patrick Ness' brutal pen) continues to pound on Todd and Viola until the untimely and unsatisfying cliffhanger ending. I will NOT be continuing on in this series. P.S Yes, of course I loved Manchee - and I hold Patrick Ness directly responsible for his treatment. Teaching/Parental Notes: Age: 15 and up Gender: Both Sex: None Violence: Knife play, gun play, death by stabbing, death of a pet Inappropriate Language: 2 instances Substance Abuse: None

If you like the The Hunger Games, then you need to pick this book up. The first in the Chaos Walking trilogy, this is a fantastic sci-fi/dystopian novel. Imagine being the youngest boy in a town of only men, where you can hear everyone's thoughts - and then suddenly, one day, you come across a pocket of silence and can't keep it a secret. Unpredictable, intense, violent, and fantastic, this book will have you on the edge of your seat. This is a MUST READ!

Patrick Ness …I think I may love you just a little bit. Okay, maybe a lot. I can’t remember the last time I read a book where I literally had to force myself to slow down while reading. I’d start a page and I just couldn’t stand it – my eyes would race to the bottom of the page, skip over to the next page…I was so invested in these amazing characters and this story and look, I’m doing it here. Context coming right up. The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy (The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men are the other two titles in the series.) I purchased it based on someone’s blog review – sorry, don’t remember the blog – and it languished on my tbr pile for several months before I finally picked it up. I read about 10 pages and put it aside. I had the same sort of lukewarm feelings about the book as I did after my first attempt to read The Book Thief. And we all remember how that turned out, right? The second time I picked up Ness’ book, I fell into the narrative. By page 38 there was NO WAY I was putting the book down; I couldn’t have put it down even if I’d wanted to. Todd is just days away from becoming a man; that’s what he’ll be on his 13th birthday. He lives in Prentisstown, a place notable for two reasons: there are no women and everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts. Todd calls it the ‘noise’ and we hear about as he heads off to the swamp to pick apples. " …the swamp is the only place anywhere near Prentisstown where you can have half a break from all the Noise that men spill outta theirselves, all their clamor and clatter that never lets up, even when they sleep. men and the thoughts they don’t know they think even when everyone can hear. Men and their Noise. I don’t know how they do it, how they stand each other." This visit to the swamp is remarkable though; Todd hears…silence. But that can’t be because “there’s no such thing as silence. Not here, not nowhere. Not when yer asleep, not when yer by yerself, never.” When he returns to the home he shares with Ben and Cillian, he gets an even bigger surprise: Ben tells Todd he has to go. There is no time for discussion or explanation, Todd must run. The shocks keep coming for young Todd and his faithful dog, Manchee. (And can I just say here that I have never been one to fall for the old ‘boy and his dog’ story until now – I love that dog, whose thoughts Todd can also hear.) Patrick Ness has created a compelling, suspenseful narrative. Todd’s life is constantly in danger and he has to keep adjusting his own story because, clearly, he hasn’t been told the whole truth about the town he comes from or even his own personal history. He leaves Prentisstown with a book he can’t read and a knife and a sense of urgency that propels him forward with barely a chance to catch his breath. I felt like that, too. I know that dystopian literature is all the rage these days and yes, I am a fan of The Hunger Games, but I think Ness has done something else quite original with The Knife of Never Letting Go. This is a story that grabs you by the throat and shakes the living daylights out of you for 479 pages. The subject matter is often dark. The character of the preacher, Aaron, is one of the creepiest psychopaths I’ve encountered in literature in a long, long time. And this is a book I want to hand to people and say “read this now!” I love it when that happens.

Summary Life in Prentisstown is tough. Being the last settlement in the New World, and having lost all their women to the terrible Noise Virus, life can seem very isolated for the men (and one boy) who remain. Except for the fact that no one is ever really alone when everyone else can hear your every thought. Todd is the last boy left in Prentisstown, but less than a month remains until he will finally be a man. He believes things will be better once he can be counted among the men in town, but when he discovers a strange silent spot amongst the Noise in the swamp, suddenly everything Todd knows is thrown into question. His family sends him away, telling him to run for his life and never look back. Angry and confused, Todd has no choice but to flee the only life he believes exists. As he makes his way into the unknown, he discovers that everything he once thought to be true was a lie. Review The premise of The Knife of Never Letting Go is fantastic! The idea of being able to hear the thoughts of everyone around you is original and unique. There’s plenty of non-stop action to keep the reader flipping pages. The characters are believable, well developed, and grow throughout the course of the novel. And once you get used to the strange grammar and horrific spelling, the dialogue is interesting. So really, it’s got all the factors that make up a great book right? Right. Except that I hated it. I mean I read the whole book and have no complaints about the quality of the writing, but everything that happens to the characters throughout the course of the story is AWFUL. There might be one or two brief moments of happiness, but that’s it. I almost stopped reading 2/3 of the way through because something so terrible happens that I didn’t think I could take any more. I managed to soldier on, but there was definitely no happy reward for my efforts. And don’t even get me started on that ending - or rather complete lack of an ending. I’m all for a well-done cliff-hanger, but this book just stops (at yet another horrible thing) about 10 pages short of an actual ending. I almost wonder if my digital copy was missing some bits it was so abrupt. Verdict If you’re OK with a really dark and unhappy story, then The Knife of Never Letting Go is a great read. If you want to feel a little bit good while reading, then skip this one.

The only--ONLY--reason I'm not giving this book five stars is that, yes, the dialect makes it a little difficult to get into. I actually picked it up a few months ago and stopped reading it because Todd's voice was distracting, but a friend told me to give it another chance and boy, am I glad that I did. The Knife of Never Letting Go was one of the most heart-wrenching novels I've read in a while. The premise itself is fresh, original, and unlike anything I've read before: all men can hear each other's thoughts, and those of all animals. The way the Noise was written out was really cool, and the language--despite the grammar--was almost poetic at times. Despite being quite a big book I was unable to put it down and finished it almost immediately. And yes, I'll admit that tears did come to my eyes more than once. Todd was such a complex character, and he was supported by an incredibly well-developed cast (Manchee!). The book ends on quite a big cliffhanger so I'm almost glad I only just discovered it--I don't have to wait for the sequels to come out! If you're having trouble getting in to it, don't give up. The Knife of Never Letting Go was addictive--it didn't let ME go!