Book Reviews

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Note: I have never done a book review before, so don't kill me. Constructive criticism would be awesome though! 

Book: The Knife Of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness ( www.patrickness.com/ )

Genre: Sci-fi (probably, it's its own kind of book honestly)

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd. 

Price: Anywhere from $5.43- $14.38, depending which version you buy. 

Inside Cover: Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown. 

But Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending Noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets. 

Or are there? 

Just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd unexpectedly stumbles upon a spot of complete silence. 

Which is impossible. 

Prentisstown has been lying to him. 

And now he's going to have to run... 

Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go is a novel about hard choices, and the cost of secrets. The town that Todd lives in, Prentisstown, is enshrined in lies. Throughout the story, all the way to the end, the lies are slowly removed, providing an evolving view of the characters and the town a lot of them come from. Todd himself is just a boy in this story. The way the story is written, using an accented and sort of 'local' language really helps to see to the heart of his character. His dog, Manchee, is also portrayed through the use of language. Manchee uses very simple language because he's a dog, and it serves to make him very  dog-like. 

        The story also shows that everything has a cost. If Todd chooses to leave Prentisstown, Ben and Cilian will die. If he doesn't leave, he will have to become a man, and other terrible events will take place. If he leaves Manchee in the hands of evil, Unnamed Character (haha secrets) will be safe. However, if he leaves Unnamed Character, and saves his dog, UC will die.   

        In the book, a disease has allowed every man to hear every other man's thoughts. Nothing is ever a secret, and the instant a thought is born it is known. This allows for unusual character interaction.  

        The title is also very interesting. It's not about a literal knife. The words 'never letting go' are a knife, in and of themselves. Never letting go means holding on until it hurts, and maybe cuts into you. Never letting go means a sharp pointy thing that can be used against you. It's a very clever title and has a lot to do with the story, however subtle the connection is. 

        I really liked this book. It didn't have a lot of swears, which I was grateful. The main character is only twelve. We don't need him saying a bunch of crap, really. It was constantly interesting. It was well-paced. This book made me stay up way too late some nights until I finished it. It's sci-fi, but it's not stuffed full of aliens and phasers and stuff. The characters are colonizers on a new planet, and a starship is involved remotely, but it's not sci-fi. It's a sci-fi western kind of novel I guess. I would recommend it to anyone really, you don't have to be nerdy to read it.