The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness| Review

Hey guys,

You may start to see a running theme here but I saw the knife of never letting go on a kindle sale for 99p, and I just can't resist books for 99p. I've come so close to buying this trilogy before but there have always been other books that I wanted to read more. That's mostly because I didn't really know what this book was about, I've heard a lot of good things about the trilogy but I think it's one of those series' that everyone assumes everyone already knows about it and don't explain it. So to avoid that here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

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.




I didn't immediately love this book, like I do with a lot of books. I usually know if I'm going to really like a book or not by the first 100 or so pages depending on the length and genre. I was bit baffled by the purpose misspellings and such, but once it got into the swing of things this was really enjoyable.

Like all fantastical books, or SiFi in this case, there was a lot of set up and world building. This may be off putting to a lot of people but I'm so used to reading fantasy that I mostly just think of this as a good thing- a promise of more books to come that will be even better. The world building and such only slow the pace for the first half-ish of the book, and then everything picks up.

I liked the character development, Todd pretty much acts like an idiot for a good proportion of the book, but that's to be expected if you have grown up on lies and he does start to realise everything is different.
I also really like the friendship bond that develops with Viola (and Manchee lets face it) and that you slowly learn more about her.

There's a good proportion of heart break, suspense and action and whilst I found the ending predictable, it was no less enjoyable. I'm definitely going to continue on with the trilogy

4/5

~Louisa