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

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

My rating - 3.5 Stars of 5 Stars

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, 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.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

'The Knife of Never Letting Go' is the first book in the Sci Fi 'Chaos Walking Trilogy' written by Patrick Ness.As the synopsis suggests, this story starts when one day Todd goes near the Swamp to bring apples for his adoptive father. On his way he finds a place where amidst all the noise is a hole of silence, which is unusual and he do not know the source of it. When he return back to home, all of a sudden he have to fled from Prentisstown as all the men of the town are coming after him.Todd runs (even though he don't know why) and finds the source of the silence in swamp which turns his life even more upside down.But this is just a start and his running days has just begun.On the way to his journey he gets to know the truth about the men and the town where he was born and the real history of it which he was completely unaware of.But why all the men of Prentisstown are after him? What is the real history of the town? How it all come back to the knife he is holding with him? Well...You have to read this book to find out more!

My Thoughts

Plot and World Setting

Overall I loved the plot line and the whole concept of 'New World'.We have a town with no women, all killed due to the germs infection given by the original resident of this planet, called 'spackle'.Or this is truth Todd has been told!! Is this the real truth? In the first half of the book we are left with lots of questions and no answers at all.Just like Todd , we are left in the middle of unknown and have to figure out everything, first time by going outside the town.

Due to the whole getting to know the truth and as well as getting familiar with the unknown territory, we are left with a very slow paced plot and it really felt dragged at some points. But as I got to the second half of the book, it got more interesting for me.We have an action packed and fast paced plot with the anticipation of what will happen next! This part was also a very surprisingly intense emotional roller coaster for me.I was genuinely invested in my characters and gave a damn about what will happen to them.We have few deaths in this one and one death in particular, really rocked me to the core and I cried my eyes out in that one.The unpredictability and surprisingly emotional second part of the book really won me over in the plot department.And the cool concept of a 'New World' really was worth reading even it is not completely shown to us.

Characters

This is where my problems with book starts.It would have been an easy 4-4.5 Stars for me, had there not been the fact that I was completely frustrated with our main protagonist and illiterate narrator, Todd.Writing which I will come to later, was not an issue for me.My main issue was the questionable actions or lack there of from his part.Two senseless deaths which happened in the book, I really thought happened due to his inability to accept the truth and see what really was there in front of his eyes all along.I know the reasons but it really do not lessen my resentment towards him at all. Many more things would have been avoided if he was not such an idiot!!

Otherwise I loved Viola, Manchee and Ben. Manchee was my favourite..... Oh!! How I adore him!!! This book also had some really despicable antagonist whom I hate with such a passion!! Their mindset was what sickened me the most!

Writing

I know that lot of readers had issues with the writing style but I think it was necessary to show it like that as our narrator, Todd was illiterate.It was weird at first but after some pages I got used to his 'Ain't nothing' and 'direkshun'.So it was tolerable to read.

Definitely will suggest to any Sci-Fi reader who loves reading young adult and some really good plot and world.If you do no mind the main character much!Book ends with a cliffhanger and I will definitely pick the second to see what happens next.

My Ratings

Plot and World Building - ★★★★
Characters - ★★★
Writing - ★★★1/2

Overall Rating - 3.5 Stars!

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