Review: The Knife Of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

Genre: Fantasy

Published: 5th May 2008

Length: 496 pages

My rating: 8/10

Overview: Todd lives in a town where every woman has been killed off a mysterious disease; the same disease that also makes your thoughts able to be heard by everyone else. One day Todd finds a gap in the noise, leading him to discover his town's brutal history.

My little sister read this series last year and absolutely loved it (which is rare as she hardly ever reads). I read another book by Patrick Ness intended for slightly older readers. The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, but I didn't particularly like it so I wasn't intending to read this series. However, I made a bargain with my sister that if I read this, she will read the PJO series, so here we are. And to be honest, this was way better than the other Patrick Ness book I read!

We begin in a small town where everyone can hear each other thoughts, which is a super cool context. I often find myself thinking something and somebody (usually my mum) replies to what I was thinking without my even having to say it aloud. Freaky right! I would hate living in this world because, let's be honest, I have some pretty indecent thoughts that I'm sure would scandalous my mum to find out, so it makes it easy for the reader to understand Todd's frustration with where he lives. There are also no women in this town, so Todd is raised by Ben and Cillian. Now, my main question was obviously: tHe GaY???? Unfortunately we receive no verification but I personally ship Ben and Cillian anyway, y'know me. Todd finds a girl *gasp* and he cannot hear her noise. For 'reasons' he and the girl flee the town and the novel is basically them on the run.

Todd - our main character. I didn't hate him, but I wasn't overly impressed with him. The lil hick could sure learn how to spell. He did some pretty weird shit - that time he kept punching himself in the face freaked me out guys! And then we also have Viola, and again, I don't hate her, but I'm not overly attached. When Todd had to choose between and Manchee I was kinda hoping he would choose Manchee I guess. And that brings us on to my favourite character, sweet little Manchee who saved Todd countless times and barely got a nod of recognition for it. I know he was probably supposed to be a big dog like a labrador or something but I pictured him as a teeny little dachshund and it made my heart happy. #mancheedeservedbetter2k18

There were two major problems I have with the book. Firstly, the last fifty pages were pretty tiresome - enemy arrives, brief moment of respite, another enemy arrives, brief moment of respite, another enemy arrives. It could have been spaced out a bit more as I felt the author was in a rush to tie some things up. Secondly, it kinda annoyed me that SO many things are held back from the reader. I get that we are not supposed to know much about this world, and it's fine to create questions, but it bugged me when Todd would learn something but it was not actually told to the reader. It's just frustrating, especially when you're reading first person perspective. It was also annoying that every single character knew more than Todd. I just like to have a vague clue as to what is going on you know!

So in short, it was much better than I expected, and quite refreshing to have a dystopian that is set on another planet and not everything is the government's fault (although I guess there was still a kind of evil dictatorship)! I hope to see the characters grow more in the next book.

#patrickness #review