Quote Reviews the Knife of Never Letting Go

Volume Title:The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #01)
Author:Patrick Ness
Number of pages: 479

Synopsis:

Prentisstown isn't similar other towns. Anybody can hear everyone else'south thoughts in an overwhelming, never-catastrophe stream of Noise. Merely a calendar month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his canis familiaris, 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.

Merely how do you escape when your pursuers tin can hear your every idea?

(re: Goodreads @ The Knife of Never Letting Become past Patrick Ness )

Should this book be picked upward? the tl;dr spoiler-less review:

– Relationships between protagonists and man and canis familiaris are all genuine and platonic. Manchee is the best effing red dog, always, and I'g sure this foolish man's best friend will become your favourite character.
– The world isn't burdened with description as it allows for basic tangible scenery to get fully realised in thought. Follows the first person perspective of an illiterate male child; there volition be words made upwards, misspelled enunciated words, and lots of repetition.
– Basically one long chase scene where the primary antagonist is well-nigh a carbon copy of Terminator.
– Handles the social and homo issues with ease; focusing on choice and self-identity in a dehumanized society of power tripping baddies mirroring the novel concept of community.
– An unfortunate cliffhanger that may require the second instalment gear up to become.

Initial Thoughts

So stuff happens. And then more than stuff happens. Then someone slaps me in the face and I'1000 like ????? simply other things happen. Then someone shoots my leg and equally I'm slow to become up, they gun downwardly my knee-cap, too. And and so the cycle repeats a few more times until all feels have been exhausted.

And that'due south basically The Pocketknife of Never Letting Go in a nutshell withal all that violent stuff actually happening (or maybe it does, differently).

Never accept I read an initial installment for a trilogy where goose egg really changes from the offset to the last page (re: because ~500 pages) yet it's an aquiver thrill-ride of questions, answers, and a goldmine of atmospheric suffocation and tension. Between all the moments I hated and the moments that I relished, at that place's something worth ownership into.

And if information technology'south any consolation, I shed some tears. And so, that's worth something I estimate.

This and more (~3k words more than) under the cut—

Side annotation: I wrote a companion post (re: Music Mon)where I matched a song to elements of this novel. You can detect that post by clicking here.

Disclaimer: Potential spoilers inherent to this review from here onward.

Afterthoughts:

"The Noise is a human unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is merely chaos walking."

You read the synopsis and you retrieve you kind of understand the gist of it. Just and so you lot're either 1 of two people: those who have read Ness earlier and those who haven't—though, in either instance, I'm sure there'll exist enough of 'whaaaaaaaaat?' And that's quite the doozy, actually. The Knife of Never Letting Go is indeed a rollercoaster—I loved it and then hated it and then I loved information technology some more than and then…—well, I'k existence put in a pretty peculiar position.

I enjoy information technology. Simply, I also hated it–it's really perplexing actually.

How piece of cake it must have been for Ness to write such a captivating, wild and nuanced goose chase is beyond me. Nix and everything happens. While at that place are moments of foreshadowing that are easily prospected, it doesn't necessary detract from the actual story in the long run because this trilogy manages to encapsulate an assortment of issues that works for an all-age audition (well, mayhap not your 4-yr-quondam nephew/niece). Yes, this is science-fiction dystopia simply it'south not all completely wishy washy doom and gloom frequently involving emotionally-mute heroes and heroines against a world of inequality that is common to YA dystopia. It has become apparent to me that while the rich meaning has not fully fleshed itself out in this initial instalment, the writing at its core, is still reliably thought-provoking and emotionally-charged to drive its message in a new world from a perspective of discovery. Then it is no surprise that this novel (or its successors) have garnered the attending and accolades information technology has earned; despite its inclination to accept semi-mixed reactions.

Premise

"Men's minds are messy places and Racket is like the active, breathing face of that mess. It'southward what's truthful and what's believed and what's imagined and what'due south fantasized and information technology says one matter and a completely opposite affair at the same fourth dimension and even tho the truth is definitely in there, how can you tell what's truthful and what's not when yet getting everything?"

There is a boy. His name is Todd Hewitt. He resides in Prentisstown, a hamlet of men, where it has go tradition that a boy becomes a man at the age of xiii. In a town of perpetual Noise; a sea of countless unturnoffable thoughts from human and creacher, Todd finds a pocket of silence which takes him (and his ruddy good dog Manchee) on an adventure confronting his ain will into a world he knows zero nigh and where everything is true and everything is lies. Through the wood and abased settlements of New Earth, Todd is unknowingly the harbinger of chaos and the cursed men of Prentisstown desire cipher more than their own and volition travel the distance to find him. Just why get through all the trouble for the last boy in Prentisstown? And where have all the women gone? Todd is an almost-man, one month to be exact; but he's still a boy, and he'southward near to learn why manhood is an idea that is not a choice of his own.

Narration/Setting

"I said it before, men lie all the time, to theirselves, to other men, to the earth at large, but who tin can tell when the lie's a strand in all the other lies and truths floating round outta yer head? Everyone knows yet lying simply everyone else is lying, too, so how tin can information technology matter? What does information technology alter? It's simply role of the river of a man, function of his Noise, and sometimes you tin pick information technology out, sometimes you can't. But he never stops being himself when he does it."

The showtime-person visual is a pretty large hurdle (if not the most notable difference) a reader volition tackle to immerse themselves in Todd's head and the globe created. Grammer and Spelling Nazis, ye be warned. A plethora of phonetic injustices and misspellings that mirror a prepubescent teenager on a social messenger like ICQ (yeah, that's some throwback shit right there)—oh, wait, he's 12—are laden throughout and information technology's office of the quirkiness of Todd's graphic symbol and well-nigh notably the propensity of his settlement in abhorring educayshun (encounter what I did in that location?) for the intrinsic conventionalities system loosely tied to colonization and dehumanization in crafting a being fit for a forced existence. This and more than discussed in the ramblings per theme section.

Everything is meticulously placed and for-the-almost-part reads every bit if it's a discovery on its own for the first time. This is good. The broken dialogue that is Todd's thoughts teeters between correct or wrong, truth and lie because everything becomes a first even if it's an afterward-the-fact self-analysis based on Noise or stories he'south been told. The dust in how events play out is in the nature of the suspense itself and readers are thrown into the whirlwind of danger, eeriness, and the remote assumption that somebody (anybody) is listening to Todd'south every idea much as how the reader is following the protagonists' Dissonance. To tangent this into the writing itself is of but a casual prose, a tried-and-true rawness with the passing thought of expletives. It has its moments of luminescence in an otherwise muddled world of non-uniform thoughts as even some lines are repeated for the sake of true cognition because let's be honest: speaking with a stutter isn't the same as rethinking the possibility of anything with a rational pretense. 'I can practise this. I can do this. I can practise this. I volition practise this'. If the value of growth lives and dies by the witting thought, then the writing (and vocalisation) is proof that repetition is not a tedious thing simply one that justifies evolution.

While I have qualms regarding certain show-don't-tell semantics of this POV (of which there are some evident no-no's that I'1000 non going to delve into), the writing is well suited to Todd and his surroundings that seemingly allows for the globe to embody a grapheme all on its own; it's nighttime, it's alive, and even the wilderness has its own thoughts. The concept is novel: space colonist's transition from Onetime Globe into New Globe with hopes of finding a new abode (plain). Where they determine to settle is in an ordinary yet unique environment of ghastly alienish mystique fronted every bit an inhabited forested mountainside with an old western backdrop. And Noise. Lots and lots of Noise.

More importantly, Ness doesn't brunt readers with a mural of infinite brush strokes. Minimalist detailing doesn't ever work with the introduction of new scenery; especially if it's encouraging the integration of science-fiction elements, merely the setting is a plausible scapegoat to the adrenaline-rush of action that'southward happening. Swamp, dirt, cliff, road, trees, bushes, rivers, more copse. The power in writing doesn't come up from overabundant descriptions merely rather depends on the readers recall in conjuring up images from their educated minds much like how Todd is doing equally he discovers more than about his world. With this in listen, I plant the read to be a quick-paced page-turner with most of my thoughts on thematic discussions realised more-so after the read. Non simply was the content engrossing, it is through and through a claustrophobic panic with only unknowns staring correct back at Todd.

"…I recollect how hope may exist the affair that pulls y'all frontwards, may be the thing that keeps you going, merely that it's unsafe, too, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare to the globe and when has the world ever allow united states win a dare?"

Themes

The Knife of Never Letting Become covers a sparse range of issues that is rich and meaningful given its intended audience. The concept of identity and dehumanization is ane that forces characters to be cleaved down only to be rebuilt in a uniform style. As the lonely male child in Prentisstown, Todd is extremely isolated in a world with men and is categorically defined to exist different from the residual, forcing him to want to fit the mold of a man non on his own terms in order to gain a sense of belonging. Only what isn't immediately known to Todd is that the pressures to conform into someone he isn't (yet) jeopardizes his moral compass and innocence as a child that once lost cannot truly be establish again.

There's a passage in this novel that suggests the stark realities of growing up (or in this case, the loss of innocence) through an inconceivable human activity. The purpose of the line "if ane of us falls, we all autumn" is a malleable idea that changes in context throughout the novel but remains reliably the same. What begins equally the bases of dystopian reasoning on the part of the antagonists finds its way to each own characters' internal struggle of selection; the defining moment which pushes a character to realise that despite fully rationalized decisions having its ups and downs, choice is withal theirs to make on their own terms—not by the pressures of others. This extends to the thought that if we're the kings of our own temple, and so in one case you lot fall and then it is very possible for others to succumb to the aforementioned fate as you take as well. The message therein regards that even if it's an inevitable conclusion, information technology doesn't mean that you can't take the offset strike and choose the arena of battle.

"But a knife just ain't just a thing, is it? It's a option, information technology's something you do. A knife says yes or non, cut or not, dice or don't. A pocketknife takes the determination out of your paw and puts information technology in the earth and information technology never goes back."

This extends into the realm of being a coming-of-historic period novel with the transition into manhood being the driver of cocky-discovery. Although there are aha moments, at that place are two key plot points that propel Todd to the breaking signal of what being a homo is; both situations involving decease as the measure for evaluation and both handled in polar contrary ways. I won't item these events but they push him to become more than what he thinks he amounts to. And despite all that becomes shit in his life, there'southward yet a silent thread of hope and sense of humanity introduced in bits and pieces earlier and after these events that allow Todd to believe in the possibility of him making it out intact even everything seems stacked against him. Aye, this might be the cheese ball of tropes but information technology fits neatly together with the other predominant themes and it is that where the heart of the novel is found.

Characters

If one matter seems consistent with this novel and More than This, it'due south that Patrick Ness is not afraid to let shit striking the fan. Whether or non he's 1 sadistic bloke is beyond me and I could honestly intendance less because it's not always well-nigh senseless suffering. Surely we tin argue the irrational thinking behind children who go harmed by adults with a giant glowing "this is non okay" sign as much as we tin can too condition younger readers to consider the likelihood of adults fucking up their shit if sure mumbo-jumbo garbage isn't lived upward to. This isn't to say that I'yard all for characters disappearing on a whim with no substance or egregiously killed off for style to prove the author has balls to practise and then. Just at the stop of information technology all, if it provokes the necessary emotion to create a dialogue (whether or not nosotros stand at a united forepart) and allows you to tangibly experience something, and so it's done its job—good or bad.

"They're singing here. Calling it from ane to another in their Noise.Here I am. Here we are. Here we go. Here is all that matters. Here.

It's—can I say?

It'southward like the vocal of a family where everything's e'er all correct, information technology's a song of belonging that makes you belong merely by hearing it, it's a song that'll always take intendance of you and never leave you. If yous have a heart, information technology breaks, if you have a heart that's cleaved, it fixes."

Manchee—yous're an effing ruddy good canis familiaris. Ane would imagine how easy it should be to write in the heed of a dog (let alone all the other animals in this novel). But Ness has depicted an uncanny resemblance of man's best friend. Whenever Manchee says something (even if it's just 'poo'), my spirits are lifted. Whenever Manchee gets hurt during some unnecessary debacle, I experience a pain and struggle to continue reading this volume, forever wanting to figuratively punch Todd'due south kickoff unborn child (also: fuck you. Todd). Manchee is a scene stealer and I'thousand proverb this at present: he'due south amongst the all-time (if not the best) literary pets I've come beyond. So if you e'er read this, Mr. Patrick Ness, I love and detest you for writing Manchee the style you did. Love and hate y'all.

While the prime antagonist is basically the entirety of Prentisstown, it'southward safe to say that the leading character that fits the pecker of eternal agony for the escapees is Preacher Aaron and his divine ways of pretty much being some sort of pseudo-Terminator. Like, seriously, Aaron is this continual looming proxy of Prentisstown sent to remember Todd and he's resilient in means that defy plausibility and survivability. Did anyone else think of Mormon'due south when Aaron was on the hunt for Todd? Non to hark on any Mormon's in particular, merely I've been in numerous situations when Mormon's try to reason with me until I saw their perspective. Not to mention they followed me until the ends of the street(due south) if necessary. Given this information, Aaron is a spinning prototype of this once repressed memory that both ticks me off and scares me by the same measure. And so as much value that tin can be credited to him, I definitely had mixed feelings based on his persistence in existence a staggering colonnade of conviction with little-to-no malicious intent to truly harm Todd. Which by the way, isn't extremely clear cut to begin with so at best he's a one-dimension reminder that stranger danger is still (and tin can exist) a very real thing to be skeptical well-nigh.

Todd Hewitt is a dynamic almost-man and a protagonist that actually sticks to you. Between his lacklustre childhood of continual, ominous Noise and the limited teachings of any cocky-righteous community, Todd is an illiterate child thrust out of his environment (with his mom's diary no less) as a product of Mayor Prentiss and into a new perspective challenged by what he's told to believe versus what's in-front of him. He experiences normal young boy frustrations and despite being unintelligible on paper; his actions are everything simply. Moreover, Todd begins to broaden his telescopic as the narrative progresses, condign responsive and perceptive to his new surround and the people he meets. There is 1 particular moment where it feels as though time stops and Todd realises that he doesn't need Noise or chat or action to begin understanding anyone. Past simply being perceptive and observing his environs, the people, the emotions and reactions, does he recognize that by being nowadays and in the moment can he truly run across someone—and information technology was such a profound and poignant moment for Todd and as a reader. (On the record: but this isn't where I shed tears).

To circular out the characters, Viola Eade is a girl who joins Todd on his run from the Prentisstown mobsters. She remains silent and simply observes Todd and Manchee for a section of the novel and has unwillingly enveloped herself in the whole chase situation despite having her own reasons of being on New Globe. I won't betrayal much of her character evolution and addition in this review anymore. The one thing I tin can say is that I'm happy that Todd and Viola bask a realistic ideal relationship non driven past any form of animalism from either party. While the progression of the plot would signal their increasing proximity to each other (re: considering dire situations in dystopia apparently bring a boy and girl together), it goes caput-strong to follow the friendship-beginning recipe of an honest relationship.

"There ain't nothing adept that don't got real bad waiting to follow it."

Overall

Pegged as a children'due south novel (fifty-fifty more youngin' than YA can get), in that location'southward so much more than in this suited for an older audience than what information technology's marketed for. But by the same measure, Ness has put together a narrative that speaks to a variety of human and social problems for a younger audience. It's often dark and bleak just I honestly retrieve he's but adapting to the resilience of younger readers and the susceptibility of gritty, morbidly anguishing perspectives nearly notably establish in video games and television that often throws a punch of reality without the idea that there may be a younger audience.

If I've said this one time, I've said this a thousand times: this book moves forward in a very stagnant way. While much of the volume takes place as a chase-thriller at best with the pretense of stranger danger, the message is yet as profound equally ever with a fuck all unconventional writing style that'south uniquely this trilogy. Sometimes the first novels of trilogies can be read standalone despite there being more answers to seek but there's a cliffhanger that begs for attending and I do certainly hope that you have the adjacent instalment set up to become (which I don't unfortunately). The Knife of Never Letting Go past Patrick Ness is all that I hoped for and more than and it certainly didn't disappoint. It is far from a perfect read merely the premise is pretty rad, and, Ness is as absurd every bit a cucumber.

"Life equals running and when nosotros finish running peradventure that's how we'll know life is finally finished."

//exhaustive rant ends here.

WELL. This has got to be the review which has taken me the longest to write (not to mention the longest written). Why are the skilful books the hardest ones to put words to?

Oh goodness I apologize to anyone who dare reads this entirety. Perhaps. Except not really considering I felt like I had to talk most EVERYTHING.

Cheers,
Joey

loftiscolore.blogspot.com

Source: https://thoughtsandafterthoughts.com/2014/07/28/knife-of-never-letting-go-ness/

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