The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1)

This book frustrated me, but not necessarily in a bad way. It’s definitely a page-turner and has a really unique premise and great plot. I find Todd not exactly likable, but there’s no debating that he is a very well-written character. The writing in this book is a little hard to get into, since it’s written in Todd’s voice, who is fairly illiterate, meaning that certain words are misspelled and wording is sometimes strange, but it’s well-done. After the first thirty or forty pages, the writing stopped annoying me and I was able to focus on the story.

In some ways, this book reminds me of Unwind in that Ness is not afraid to take on big topics like war, innocence, and the loss thereof. Even though on the surface this book is action and adventure-packed, at its core are some pretty big questions about morality. This is not really a book for the faint of heart(except I normally am), at times it’s rather gory, at least by my standards.

The main issue I had with this book is the lack of information. For awhile, both Todd and the reader don’t know why it’s so important for him to run away from Prentisstown, and this reason is used to build suspense. That’s fine, for awhile. But by the time we actually got to the big reveal, I wasn’t full of suspense anymore, I was truly annoyed. I just found the information was withheld a little too long, and the book would have had just as much of an impact if that information had been revealed earlier.

My other more minor complaint is more of a personal one. This book ends on a cliffhanger, but by the time I got to the end I was so emotionally exhausted from reading this book and slightly impatient with the pacing of information that I really don’t feel like reading through the rest of the trilogy, despite the fact that I really do believe this is a great book. As much as I want to know what happens, I don’t want to go on another journey with Todd again just to find out what happens in this world.

Final Impression: This is no doubt a really well-done book, but I also found it incredibly frustrating at times. I want to find out what happens next, but I don’t care quite enough to run out and buy the rest of the trilogy right away. 4/5 stars.

It took me a while to warm up to this book—about 100 pages or so. That’s rather a long time, though since the book itself was nearly 500 pages, it wasn’t too bad. But once things started happening (the first 100 pages cover a 6-hour period or so), then it was practically impossible to put this book down.

The travels of Todd, Viola and the talking dog Manchee were wholly engrossing. This book is very much an escapist read, I think. It’s the kind of book you read when you don’t want to think about everything else. In spite of its length, The Knife of Never Letting Go is full of action and new experiences, and I definitely don’t think it ever dragged.

Aside from its rough start, my big complaint was how Todd would fight a bad guy, leave him for dead, and then that same bad guy would pop up again in about 20 pages. It happened over and over and over and over again. Somewhat annoying, to be honest. (Note after the fact: this is Patrick Ness’s weakness throughout the series—nobody who died stayed dead.)

The Scoop:

On New World, in the town of Prentisstown Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. But Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts (including animals) in an overwhelming, constant stream of Noise. Just a month before the birthday that makes Todd a man, he and his faithful dog, Manchee, whose simple, loyal voice he also hears happen upon an area of complete silence. While Todd tries to keep thoughts of the silence out of his Noise he fails. He knows that the silence is part of an even larger secret the powerful men of Prentisstown are trying to hide from him and ends up on the run from them with only Manchee as his companion. Todd and Manchee return to the location where they first heard nothing and the two stumble upon the 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? They convince her they mean no harm and encourage her to join their escape. And, so, Todd, Manchee and Viola must try and escape from their pursuers who can hear their every thoughts.

My Thoughts:

Nick Podehl is my audiobook god! Ever since his first "dang it" in Carter Finally Gets It I have loved everything he has narrated. And this goes above and beyond all of my past experience. Narrating the animals and all the "Noise" made my experience so much better than if I had read it to myself. I'm sure that's part of the whole production but it added such a great element to a crazy, crazy story.

In other news, this book really should have been titled The Knife of Never STOP RUNNING. Seriously. These kids run for freakin' ever. They run for hours. That army from Prentisstown must be some big ol' evil because there is nothing that would make me run for that long. Holy geez, but those are some tough kids.

And, Manchee, the talking dog. Well, all the animals talk but he's awesome. Todd wasn't all that excited at having a dog throughout most of the story but Manchee definitely proved his worth tenfold by the time the story was over.

I also really liked how Todd grew as a person over the first book in the trilogy (haven't gotten to the other ones yet) from distrusting a girl--because he hadn't ever been around one and all the men in his town brainwashed him to thinking they were bad--to really depending on her and risking his own life to save hers. Just from his "Noise" and other thoughts he seemed like a real teenager (prone to "speaking" without first thinking, quick to judge and ready to take the easy way out) and I really like that he wasn't written like a know-it-all with all the knowledge he needed to survive what was happening to him. He was just this kid that was thrown out on his own and had to figure out, with the help of his faithful dog and, after a while, the help of his new-found friend, Viola.

And while I enjoyed the thrill-a-minute ride that this story was I couldn't help thinking more than once that couldn't Todd and Viola catch a break just one time? Those kids were constantly watching their backs, running from their pursuers and trying to survive by their limited wits and supplies. And the cliff-hanger ending ensured that they wouldn't get any respite in the next book of the series.

I picked up The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness thinking it was going to be a dystopian, but as far as I understand the definition of a dystopian, this is not one. Or it is, but only by the slimmest margin. I personally feel this book is firmly in the science fiction category. But that's only a problem with the labeling, not the book itself.

I'm not going to lie. This book wreaked havoc with my emotions. Partly because of the writing style. Partly because of the premise. Partly because it was just so different from any other book I've ever read. And partly because it made me feel like throwing things. And then the end...

Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil it. Just let me say, the urge to throw things was never quite so strong. Fortunately, I was in bed next to my sleeping husband, so I didn't throw it. Which is good, because it was a borrowed copy, and I had promised my friend I wouldn't so much as dogear a page, much less hurl the book against the wall.

So. Let's get down to it.

The first thing that hit me about this book was the writing style. It takes some getting used to. Todd is the narrator, and he is uneducated and mostly illiterate, so the narrative is full of improper grammar and syntax, misspellings, and run-on sentences galore. If that's going to bother you, this is not the book for you, because it doesn't improve a bit throughout the entire book. It's not like Todd goes to college while trekking through the swamp.

As for Todd, he also had to grow on me a bit. I had to keep in mind that he was a 13-year-old boy (although he is about to turn 13 in Prentisstown, he says that a New World year is 13 months, which means that in our time, Todd is nearly 14), and therefore he wasn't going to be the wisest or quickest or most sensitive character. He's fairly bull-headed and slow on the uptake in the beginning, plus his treatment of Manchee is horrid. But after they flee Prentisstown, Todd begins to mature and grow, and his relationship with Manchee actually became one of my favorite parts of the book.

Speaking of Manchee, he quickly became one of my favorite literary animal characters. Even with the limited vocabulary and intellect of a dog, Manchee was fiercely loyal and protective of Todd, and I found him incredible endearing.

Then we get to the villains. And there are a lot of villains. One in particular, Aaron, is so freakishly creepy that I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares about him. The only complaint I have (because really, a super-creepy villain is not a complaint for me) is that he's still supposed to be human, even though he's crazy and evil and lives on an alien world. And several of the things Aaron manages to pull off throughout the course of the book seem decidedly inhuman.

Maybe he was a Cylon. Maybe that's a twist in the next book. I don't know. I haven't read it yet.

As for the plot in this book, the action and suspense never lets up. Todd barely has a moment's peace from the moment he flees Prentisstown until the end of the book. The danger is constant and terrifying. And with each twist and turn of the plot, the situation just seems to become more dire and bleak. A constant theme running through the book is that hope is necessary for survival, but it seems that every time Todd scrapes together a sliver of hope, it is snatched away from him and replaced with heartbreak and horror.

It's kind of hard to deal with.

But. Todd was able to rally just enough each time for me to want to keep reading. And interspersed in this incredibly dark story were moments of innocent joy and humor that would pop up at completely unexpected times.

And then there was that ending. Ugh. Don't start this book if you need things resolved by the end. It doesn't happen.

So now I have many feelings about this book. I loved the story, loved Todd and Manchee, loved the incredibly unique world that Patrick Ness created. But it also made me feel so sad and frustrated and disappointed so many times -- not because the book was disappointing, but because Todd was disappointed. It's hard to mesh all those feelings together into a coherent opinion.

Overall, I would say that The Knife of Never Letting Go is a different type of Young Adult book; it's darker, it's scarier, and it's grittier than most of the YA sci-fi out there. It will not appeal to you if you're squeamish about violence or yearn for neat and happy endings. But it features wonderfully developed characters in a brilliant new world (no pun untended) that I'm excited to keep exploring -- even if it drives me crazy.

Can you imagine if you lived in a place where animals could talk, and you could hear what everyone was thinking, ALL THE TIME?!

Well, for Todd Hewitt, this is a reality. Todd lives in Prentisstown, has a dog called Manchee, and has never seen a female. There are none in Prentisstown. Todd is very excited about becoming a man (on the New World, when you turn thirteen, after thirteen cycles of thirteen months, you become a man). But as his birthday approaches, Todd discovers that his whole life was constructed around a lie, and the history of Prentisstown goes deeper and darker than anyone would expect.

One day, Todd hears a hole in the Noise. A little later, he meets Viola, the first (but not the last) female he has ever met and... she has no 'noise'.

This book never gets boring, and this book is written so well, it seems almost as if you were there, experiencing everything they experience. You get to know these two main characters so well.

This book is very sad, but I love it so much! I was hooked from the very first sentence! I love how there is Todd narrating the story, it gives you a much better view of what is really going on.


The way the book is written is very fun (even though it is a sad story) and if your one of those people who can't stand spelling mistakes, I advise you to brace yourself! This book has a lot of spelling mistakes but that just makes it even better.

The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first in the trilogy of Chaos Walking.

SO, EVERYONE OUT THERE, GO AND READ THIS BOOK! IT IS AMAZING!!!!

What if there was a world where you could hear what everyone was thinking, even the animals. This is where Todd Hewitt lives with his dog Manchee. However, things don't go well for Todd as he reaches his birthday and he learns that his community is not what it seems. On the run from this secret he meets Viola, the only female he has ever met, and stranger still, someone who has no 'noise'. Their epic journey is never boring, and you fall in love with these two characters along the way.

Reader reviewed by Misty

I am a big fan of dystopic fiction, and The Knife of Never Letting Go
is one of the most compelling pieces of dystopia I have read in awhile.



Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown. His birthday is
coming, when he will take his place among the men of his community: a
community of only men, where each can hear the others thoughts. The
inhabitants of Prentisstown -- man and beast alike -- are afflicted
with Noise: a continual stream of thoughts and images from every male
creature. There is no stopping or shielding Noise, it is just a way of
life. But when Todd stumbles upon a hole in the Noise, things begin to
change in Todd's life and he finds himself on the run from all of the
people he's ever known, and discovering along the way that all he's
known to be true may not be.



I loved Todd's voice. It did take some getting used to; and not just Todd's voice but the steady stream of all
voices, down to Todd's dog, Manchee, or the crocodiles that want to eat
him. But once the transition into Noise has been made, all of the
voices become very compelling and interesting. Ness manages to make
them distinct, which is no easy feat. He also keeps the sense of
urgency going through the story without ever making the reader think
"Oh, enough already!", or without giving away too much information too
soon, so that the revelations along the way are spoiled. The action
remains taut and teh narrative quick-paced and interesting.



The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first in a trilogy, Chaos
Walking, and Ness couldn't have made that more clear. First, there is
no way that the conflicts of the story could have been resolved in one
book; second, the ending is so abrupt that it would leave most readers extremely
irritated if it was not to be continued. The ending still may irritate
some, but it certainly makes you want to read the next in the series,
The Ask and the Answer...

Reader reviewed by danielle

Book Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness

Pages: 496

Summery (from PatrickNess.com):

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...

Can words express how much I loved The Knife of Never Letting Go? Probably not. But I'll do my best.

This book starts off with, single handedly, the best first sentence in the history of literature:

The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About Anything.

And so begins The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Todd lives in a world of Noise.

Constant, unfiltered, timeless Noise that wafts through his small community just as the sound of traffic does in ours. Every thought, every feeling, every tick of an emotion is broadcast for the entire world to hear--at least, as far as Todd is concerned. He's been told that Prentisstown is the only civilization in a world of nothing, desolate and empty for his entire life. Mr. Ness describes the Noise perfectly:

"The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking"

It's not hard to believe that the entire book is just Todd's Noise. Words are misspelled, do to his lack of education. Single sentences run on for paragraphs, words are cut off before they can even be processed, every thought Todd has is completely raw. While this could have easily been a gimick, Patrick Ness pulls it off with surprising grace and fluency. Easy to understand, easy to relate to, The Knife of Never Letting Go is coming-of-age tale set in a world where coming of age is deadly, and manhood is strictly defined. It's a place where you both wish you were and thank every God you can think of your not.

As for the characters, they are very well defined. Even Manchee, Todd's talking dog, seems be a character all his own, Todd's loyal companion throughout the book, putting his little dog life on the line a handful of times in order to protect him (the ever important "awwww" factor). At first, Todd makes it very clear that he does not want, and never asked for, Manchee (he wanted a knife, as it was), which he explains quite thoroughly:

Bens sent me to pick him some swamp apples and hes made me take Manchee with me, even tho we all know Cillian only bought him to stay on Mayor Prentiss good side and so suddenly heres this brand-new dog as a present for my birthday last year when I never said I wanted any dog, that what I said I wanted was for Cillian to finally fix the fissionbike so I wouldnt have to walk every forsaken place in this stupid town, but oh, no, happy birthday, Todd, heres a brand new puppy, Todd, and even tho you dont want him, even tho you never asked for him, guess who has to feed him and train him and wash him and take him for walks and listen to him jabber now hes got old enough for the talking germ to set his mouth moving? Guess who?

But, as you turn the pages and get deeper into Todd's chaotic thought process, you realize he does hold a certain affection for his dog, gradually turning into love as they spend their lonely days together running from God-knows-what, which I think is one of the more poigent parts of the book.

I especially love how they keep Todd and Viola's--the girl he meets as he runs from Prentisstown--unromantic. Call me a cynic, but it's highly unlikely that everytime a guy meets a girl, they fall in love. Especially while on the run from an army. I think that it's a curse that befalls far too much young adult literature these days--no matter how desperate the situation, no matter how CHAOTIC the circumstances, SOMEONE ALWAYS FALLS IN LOVE. I'm always a sucker for romance, but sometimes, it's just like, "I already read this. Three hundred times." If The Knife of Never Letting Go teaches us one thing, it's that a boy and a girl can meet and *gasp* just be friends.

Keep in mind, dear readers, that just because it's in the YA section, does not mean it's for the faint of heart: The Knife of Never Letting go is a horrific, all-to-realistic tale of what could happen to our--and other's--world if we're not careful. Though the year is unspecified, the place (and planet) left oddly in the dark, it's in a way that just makes it all the more eery and surreal.

There's no way of describing The Knife of Never Letting Go without spoiling it, but I will say this; anyone, young or old, should pick it up. Immediately. Go, you fools. Your missing out. There are precious hours being wasted. GO!

Reader reviewed by Allison Fraclose

Todd Hewitt lives in a town where no thought is secret, and even animals have the ability to speak. A byproduct of the war with the Spackle, the resident beings of this planet when the colonists touched down years ago, the constant presence of noise has driven most of the men crazy. Other aftereffects of the war, such as the annihilation of every other colony outside of Prentisstown and the death of every woman on the planet, has already put a strain on the minds of these men. Todd eagerly awaits his birthdayonly one month awaywhen he will officially become a man&and something much more important than the last boy in Prentisstown.

While out picking swamp apples for one of his two guardians, Todd and his dog, Manchee, come across a strange, rare thinga spot of silence in the constant noise. When he returns home to tell his caretakers about his discovery, they tell him he must leave town, immediately. Even odder is that they already have a bag packed for him, and will give Todd no explanation while they buy him time to run.

Todd and Manchee suddenly find themselves racing through the countryside with an army in pursuit. Every man in Prentisstown now seems to be after him, and Todd still does not know why. His only clue is a battered book that he cannot read, and the knowledge that everything he has ever known about his life in Prentisstown has been a lie. Finding aid in the most unexpected of places, Todd must now survive the wrath of an unforgiving world in order to find out the truth.

Now, Im not the type to cry as I read the sad parts in books, or watch the sad parts in movies, but I have to admit that I actually shed a few tears over this story, since Id grown so invested in these characters and their trials. With sneakily brilliant writing, this book will be one knife in your chest that will keep you anxious for the sequel.