Review: THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Book 1 of the Chaos Walking series
Read by Humphrey Bower
Genre: middlegrade/YA fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About The Knife Of Never Letting Go:

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?

Source: Info in the About The Knife Of Never Letting Go was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2118745.The_Knife_of_Never_Letting_Go on 08/04/2013.

Review:

I've heard about Patrick Ness but I've never really picked up his work because the premise didn't attract my interest. In fact it made me, a fantasy geek, shy away from it. Until the World Book Night organization gave me a copy. And this book got read.

I kind of find the story telling quality annoying. It has a middlegrade tone but the book is suppose to be YA since the main protagonist seems to be in the "13 years old" age range. OK so the protagonist is just a kid. 13 years old? Not sure since their month seems to be 13 months long instead of 12. Anyway, so a bit of stupidity could be expected as part of him being an adolescent kid and all. But it seems that Todd is not only stupid but his sense of self-preservation is a lot more stunted than everybody else's. A scary bad guy comes at you and you just stand there and let him take your knife away and let him beat the shit out of you. What kind of person just stands there? Todd obviously. For a YA and/or middlegrade book, The Knife Of Never Letting Go takes on dark adult themes like murder and letting a loved one die to save your own skin. Add this with the stupid protagonist. And I was a royally annoyed reader! This may be a good marketing technique. Probably ratchets the suspense up or whatever. But it only annoys me to hell and back. I had to stop reading before I spontaneously combust from annoyance! It was stop-start like that all through out the book. You can safely say that this book wasn't a quick read. But it wasn't all bad. The author knows how to tug on the emotional heartstrings of the readers and I think this is the most redeeming quality of this book. Plus the narration was clear and distinct. The world building is not intricate but beautiful none the less. However the thing which clinches this book as a goner for me is the cliffhanger ending. That's it! No more Patrick Ness books for me!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 3
Story itself = 3
Ending = 3.5
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 2
Pace = 1 (paperback) / (audiobook: 12hrs and 32mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narration = 3.5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Chaos Walking Series:


Thank you to the World Book Night organization for the free paperback copy of The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness which in turn shall be passed on to someone else.

FTC Disclosure:
The paperback copy was received for free from the World Book Night organization. The audiobook format was purchased with private funds. No money received for this review.