The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

This month’s Saturday Spotlight theme is dystopian, one of my favorite genres! Last week I talked about Legend by Marie Lu and you can find that post here.

This week I am sharing The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. This book also falls very heavily into the sci-fi category, as it takes place on another planet, but it is still very much dystopian.

This book starts out with Todd, who is the only boy in a town of men. There are no women in Todd’s world, and it is believed that all the women died on this planet due to a disease. Todd, and all the other men, can hear each other’s thought, as well as animals. They call it Noise

Todd can sense that the people in town are hiding something from him, something terrible, so the only thing he can do is run away with his loyal dog. He then finds a girl in the wild, which goes against everything Todd thought he knew.

This is a very fascinating book series. It is gritty and somewhat dark, I will admit. It is also gruesome. It doesn’t glorify violence, though, which is something I appreciated. It was also pointed out that this is one of the few books where when a character kills someone else, intense amounts of grief and guilt are displayed. A lot of sad things happen throughout this book, and the series as a whole. Patrick Ness really doesn’t shy away from powerful emotions.

The characters in this book are varied, sometimes a little crazy, and there is a lot of growth as the series continues. The main characters are great. I especially love Todd. He is an interesting character, who feels very real and goes through a lot, that leads to a lot of character growth.

There is also an alien species throughout this book. There is somewhat an underlying conversation about colonization pertaining to this species that develops throughout the entire series.

I should also note that this first book was made into a movie starring Tom Holland playing Todd, Nick Jonas playing beloved Davy (he grows on you after the first book, I promise!), and Daisy Ridley playing Viola. The movie is called Chaos Walking, in case anyone is curious. I shall also share that I have not watched the movie. I am still debating if I should, but I am thinking about it.

The Knife of Never Letting Go, and the entire Chaos Walking series, is amazing! It deals with complex situations wonderfully, with complex characters. There are some heavy, emotional parts to this gritty series, but it is wonderfully and beautifully done.

Summary:

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.