The Knife of Never Letting Go

Patrick Ness

Oct 2010 · Candlewick Press

About this ebook

A dystopian thriller follows a boy and girl on the run from a town where all thoughts can be heard – and the passage to manhood embodies a horrible secret.

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.

Ratings and reviews

I have heard fantastic things about this book and about Patrick Ness in general, and I was not disappointed. I really loved The Knife of Never Letting Go. First of all, the writing was beautiful. The world that Patrick Ness created was really interesting, and I felt like I could imagine the entire planet perfectly as I was fleeing Prentisstown with Todd. The characters felt so real and I found myself growing incredibly attached to them. I have to admit, I was a little bit confused at the very start of this book, but once the plot developed a little and I got to know a bit more about the characters and the world, everything fell into place and I was hooked. I would love to be able to tell you more about the character development and the world building, but saying anything more would put me at risk of spoiling you, and I really think it is best to go into this book without knowing too much about the plot. One thing that surprised me about The Knife of Never Letting Go is how dark it was. Our main character, Todd, is only supposed to be twelve or thirteen during this book (there is some debate among the characters as to the progression of time on their planet). This is a little bit younger than a typical Young Adult character, and this book is marketed as YA. Despite Todd’s age, I found this book to be darker than most YA books I have read. The villains in this world are some of the creepiest, slimiest characters I have ever read. I have heard Mayor Prentiss named as people’s favorite villain multiple times, and, I will admit, he is a really creepy bad guy and I am a little afraid to see what he does in the rest of this series. But the character that really got to me in The Knife of Never Letting Go was Aaron. Aaron was freaking CRAZY. He completely creeped me out and I will never forget his scenes in this book. Ugh, that guy gives me chills….

Hope. Run. This book took me about a week to finish, just 5 days longer than it would take the rest of my family to read. But with this book I am glad to have enjoyed it for so long. It has beautiful character development for both of the main characters, but also, the mannerisms change throughout the story, which is a factor I enjoyed; taking an illiterate character and placing them with one who has gone through almost too much schooling. With each part or even chapter ending on either false-alarm or true cliffhangers, The Knife of Never Letting Go, kept me up all night either bawling, unhappy with a certain character or excited over a reunion. Most reviews I've seen have said that "Reader's, won't expect to sleep until they put the book down" but I have a different experience. The moment I finished this book, I read Ness' short story, "The New World" (which is definitely the next one to read) and had not been able to sleep, ending up pulling an all-nighter on a weeknight. This is a must read, whether you read the full review or not. If you like untrained teenage adventurers, running (or being chased) around a dystopian planet, this is for you.

I couldn't put this book down. Every chapter end has a teaser, some new knowledge just around the bend, and some new conflict rising up to meet the protagonists. The author seems to like repetition as if hammering a thought into your head. It gets annoying. Also, there are a ton of run on sentences strung together by 'and'. Once again it's a style thing that can be really annoying to grammar Nazis. Overall, this was a great book. I highly recommend it.

About the author

Patrick Ness is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling Chaos Walking trilogy, as well as the Carnegie Medal–winning A Monster Calls, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd. Among the numerous awards he has received are the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Born in Virginia, he lives in London.