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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.
Gr 9 Up
Todd Hewitt lives in a world in which all women are dead, and the thoughts of men and animals are constantly audible as Noise. Graphically represented by a set of scratchy fonts and sentence fragments that run into and over each other, Noise is an oppressive chaos of words, images, and sounds that makes human company exhausting and no thought truly private. The history of these peculiar circumstances unfolds over the course of the novel, but Ness's basic world-building is so immediately successful that readers, too, will be shocked when Todd and his dog, Manchee, first notice a silence in the Noise. Realizing that he must keep the silence secret from the town leaders, he runs away, and his terrified flight with an army in pursuit makes up the backbone of the plot. The emotional, physical, and intellectual drama is well crafted and relentless. Todd, who narrates in a vulnerable and stylized voice, is a sympathetic character who nevertheless makes a few wrenching mistakes. Manchee and Aaron, a zealot preacher, function both as characters and as symbols. Tension, suspense, and the regular bombardment of Noise are palpable throughout, mitigated by occasional moments of welcome humor. The cliff-hanger ending is unexpected and unsatisfying, but the book is still a pleasure for sophisticated readers comfortable with the length and the bleak, literary tone.-Megan Honig, New York Public Library
THE FIRST THING you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.
"Need a poo, Todd."
"Shut up, Manchee."
"Poo. Poo, Todd."
"I said shut it."
We’re walking across the wild fields southeast of town, those ones that slope down to the river and head on toward the swamp. Ben’s sent me to pick him some swamp apples and he’s made me take Manchee with me, even tho we all know Cillian only bought him to stay on Mayor Prentiss’s good side and so suddenly here’s 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 wouldn’t have to walk every forsaken place in this stupid town, but oh, no, happy birthday, Todd, here’s a brand-new puppy, Todd, and even tho you don’t 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 he’s got old enough for the talking germ to set his mouth moving? Guess who?
"Poo," Manchee barks quietly to himself. "Poo, poo, poo."
"Just have yer stupid poo and quit yapping about it."
I take a switch of grass from beside the trail and I swat after him with it. I don’t reach him, I don’t mean to reach him, but he just laughs his little barking laugh and carries on down the trail. I follow after him, switching the switch against the grass on either side, squinting from the sun, trying not to think about nothing at all.
We don’t need apples from the swamp, truth be told. Ben can buy them at Mr. Phelps’s store if he really wants them. Also true: going to the swamp to pick a few apples is not a job for a man cuz men are never allowed to be so idle. Now, I won’t officially become a man for thirty more days. I’ve lived twelve years of thirteen long months each and another twelve months besides, all of which living means I’m still one month away from the big birthday. The plans are being planned, the preparayshuns prepared, it will be a party, I guess, tho I’m starting to get some strange pictures about it, all dark and too bright at the same time, but neverthelessI will become a man and picking apples in the swamp is not a job for a man or even an almost-man.
But Ben knows he can ask me to go and he knows I’ll say yes to going because the swamp is the only place anywhere near Prentisstown where you can have half a break from all the Noise that men spill outta theirselves, all their clamor and clatter that never lets up, even when they sleep, men and the thoughts they don’t know they think even when everyone can hear. Men and their Noise. I don’t know how they do it, how they stand each other.
Men are Noisy creachers.
"Squirrel!" Manchee shouts and off he goes, jumping off the trail, no matter how loud I yell after him, and off I have to go, too, across the (I look round to make sure I’m alone) goddam fields cuz Cillian’ll have a fit if Manchee falls down some goddam snake hole and of course it’ll be my own goddam fault even tho I never wanted the goddam dog in the goddam first place.
"Manchee! Get back here!"
"Squirrel!"
I have to kick my way thru the grass, getting grublets stuck to my shoes. One smashes as I kick it off, leaving a green smear across my sneakers, which I know from experience ain’t coming out. "Manchee!" I rage.
"Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel!"
He’s barking round the tree and the squirrel’s skittering back and forth on the tree trunk, taunting him. Come on, Whirler dog, says its Noise. Come on, come get, come on, come get. Whirler, Whirler, Whirler.
"Squirrel, Todd! Squirrel!"
Goddam, animals are stupid.
I grab Manchee by the collar and hit him hard across his back leg. "Ow, Todd? Ow?" I hit him again. And again. "Ow? Todd?"
"Come on," I say, my own Noise raging so loud I can barely hear myself think, which is something I’m about to regret, you watch.
Whirler boy, Whirler boy, thinks the squirrel at me. Come get, Whirler boy.
"You can eff off, too," I say, except I don’t say "eff ", I say what "eff" stands for.
And I really, really shoulda looked round again.
_______
Anonymous
Posted December 28, 2011
This is what more young adult books should be like. This book has it all. It has a fast-paced and exhiliraring plot that keeps the reader on their toes. It has the complex characters that you will cry for, be scared for, and love.
But most importantly, this book is thought-provoking. This type of book is what our kids need. Not some shallow, cliche-ridden vampire book.
Read this book.
11 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.In an all-male world, Todd is the youngest member of settlers of an unnamed planet where the thoughts of all living creatures are broadcast 24/7. "The Noise," as it is referred to, contributes to the paranoia and mistrust of a disfunctional society. Todd sets off an adventure with a noise-less female companion and the action is non-stop. Comic relief is offered in the form of Todd's trusty canine companion. Truly one of the most original books I've read in years. Appropriate for boys and girls alike, recommended for mature readers, not because of any objectionable content, but because of some intellectually complex themes.
11 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Hawesky
Posted July 17, 2010
The Knife of Never Letting Go, was a book that pulled you in from the start, I stayed up way-to-late, cuddling with my sheets, trying to read through meal times just so I could finish the book, and trying to read through my tears! I was and still am inseperable from this book! I find it amazing when an authors words can get such a meaningful and emotional pull out of you.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This book is amazing. It challenges the YA genre, in my opinion, because of all its intense emotion and tragedy and OH this book just gave me so many feelings. It's hard to organize my thoughts after having finished it.
There were some things that rubbed me the wrong way, as much as I loved and enjoyed this book. One was the voice, which I understand why it's written that way, but it's to such a great extent that it seems a bit gimmicky to me. Since they're his thoughts, and thoughts don't always mean words, why were words misspelled in his thoughts? I get the fact that he couldn't read, but it's easily understood without misspelled words in the descriptions. I'm being a bit nitpicky, sure, but it just made me cringe every time I saw the word "tho" instead of "though."
And the fact that the baddies were ALWAYS there and always, ALWAYS, a step ahead just started to annoy me after a while. How many times can one man pop out at them and how many times before it becomes less shocking and more irksome?
Okay, I'm done being critical because overall I loved this book. It was definitely a roller coaster of emotion. I cried and I smiled and laughed and shook my fists in frustration. Patrick Ness definitely is not afraid to censor violence and emotion but that didn't make the novel seem like one of those "violent without a clear reason as to why they're violent other than the fact that it's VIOLENCE and that's what's supposed to happen to make it seem mature, right?" Its violence was because of emotion. It seemed so gritty and real and everything was done for a reason and it all broke my heart about a thousand times.
I immediately went to the library to check out the other two in the trilogy. I could not put this book down and I'm already starting into the second installment.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Dark_Smoke
Posted September 1, 2011
As hunger games
2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 25, 2012
Todd sounds like a sexy beast
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 30, 2011
Boring at first and it took me a LONG time to finish but the ending was unexpected. The beginning is slow.
1 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 20, 2011
A superb book with the best cast of characters I have ever seen. The plot is exciting and surprising and it keeps you guessing. I compare every book I have ever read against this series and Chaos Walking beats it every time.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.misterEdSC
Posted October 23, 2011
This book starts on its own, but if you read the short story that preceeds it, the intensity is really increased. Tha characters are very well developed and I, who hates paying for a book, just had to get the next. And the next. To me it seems that there is even room for a following series,
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 13, 2011
I Also Recommend:
4.5 stars. I had a hard getting started in this book or otherwise I would have given this a 5 star rating because once I got started I could not put it down. The grammar is hard to get used to and I think that is why I had problems in the beginning and once I got used to that I was hooked. I won't review the whole premise of the book as others seem to do that but survival of the main characters will keep you reading to the end of the book. The whole idea of another New World and where and why they survived are intriguing subjects to me and Patrick Ness does an excellent job pushing me forward in the book. Talking animals (yes, I know that sounds crazy) but Richard makes them such a realistic part of the story that they blend right in. I really enjoyed the cliff hangers at the end of each chapter. Great job Patrick!
But really, how was a girl supposed to go to sleep after an ending like that? Huh?? Out to get Chaos Walking: Book 2 The Ask and the Answer
Good quote: "I think maybe everybody falls.".....I think the asking is whether we get back up again."
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.laffoutgiraffe
Posted August 2, 2011
Every summer at school we have to read a book for English and write a review and do an assignment on it. Most of the time we don't have a choice of what book we have to read. But this summer we had a list to chose from, and on the list was Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go. I chose to read this book without any knowledge of what it was about, or where it took place. But after reading it, i was so happy with myself for choosing an amazing book! Mr.Ness's style of writting is a breath of fresh air, with his true to life spelling of words. If anybody asked me for a recomondation for a book, i would plainly tell them that this book is the #1 book they should read. It teaches important leasons, shares emotions, and touches your emotions like you never thought would be possible. In simpler words, i love this book.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I read this book because I found a review that said it was "what the hunger games could have been". While I wholeheartedly disagree, I found the plot and characters to be thoughtfully developed with a new spin on a genre that has recently been muddled with subpar trilogies. With that said I am excited to see where book two takes me!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Very unique storyline.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.On a far-flung world newly settled by humanity, twelve-year-old Todd Hewitt of Prentisstown is a boy on the brink of becoming a man. <BR/><BR/>When settlers came to this world, they found it already inhabited by aliens known as the Spackle, and a war was waged against them to colonize the planet. Now, almost twenty years after the first settlers landed, the world is low-tech but free of the "spacks." However, they left behind them the "Noise germ," a chemical contaminant that causes all the men who come in contact with it to broadcast their thoughts for everyone's hearing--and kills all the infected women. <BR/><BR/>On the eve of his thirteenth birthday, Todd has never seen a woman. He was the last child born in the settlement before his mother succumbed to the Noise germ and died, and now he's the only boy left in the village of Prentisstown, all the others having turned thirteen and been proclaimed men. Now, with Todd's birthday approaching, the entire town is anxious, and Todd can hear it. <BR/><BR/>The men of the town are keeping something from him; although they can hear each other think, it's possible to learn techniques that allow one to control the information that others can hear. Ben and Cillian, his adoptive guardians and old friends of his parents, are both worried for him, though Todd doesn't know why. <BR/><BR/>And then, with less than a month to go until Todd's thirteenth birthday, he stumbles across a secret that no boy is meant to know and all men have been forced to forget, a secret about the history of his world and the lies he's been told. Todd has no choice but to escape from the town he's called his home and the people who have been his parents, on the run from something more terrible than the alien Spackle, and more familiar. <BR/><BR/>The sheer intensity of the story Ness tells kept me reading straight through this book, despite its length and occasionally hefty prose. Todd's first-person, present-tense narration has an inexorable pull that places the reader within the context of the story and keeps you turning the pages. The plot is full of twists and turns, the world is immaculately and innovatively crafted, and the characters' pain and longing seeps from the pages. <BR/><BR/>My largest complaint with this book was the way in which it ended, without resolving some major issues that had been significant throughout the story. It is the first book in a series, so this sense of incompleteness may be slightly forgiven, but I felt like I'd spent the entire book hurtling forward into empty space only to be slammed at the last minute against a brick wall. <BR/><BR/>That said, I'd recommend THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO to anyone who enjoys dystopia or slightly darker fiction, and I know I can't wait to see what happens next!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 16, 2013
Very intenss
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 12, 2013
Please explian hpw u could rate this lowwr than five i mean come on tell me a vwtter pne you camt judge a book by its title tje story os ontreuging and gets better a tje time read the maze runner if u have any sensw and have thos a five
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 9, 2013
Want a Great Book?? Look no Further!!
Patrick Ness captures the readers attention with the sentence, “The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.” This comical start to The Knife of Never Letting Go is nothing like the remainder of the book as the main character is faced with a great responsibility to “Warn Them”. Faced with many obstacles and pains along the way Todd will find out the true meaning of love. The Knife of Never Letting Go is unlike any book I have read before. A MUST READ!
The plot of The Knife of Never Letting Go will drive you through the book! You are drawn into the feelings of the characters and are forced to read the next book after the cliffhanger ending. Using the scene of Todd (the main character), his talking dog Manchee, and another human on the cover running through the night really evokes your thoughts about what the book is truly about. For someone looking to find an addicting Sci-Fi series look no further! The Knife of Letting Go runs you right into the sequel The Ask and the Answer which is followed by the Monsters of Men in the Chaos Walking series. Great length, awesome covers, sci-fi genius, and a catching plot makes The Knife of Never Letting Go an awesome choice!
Anonymous
Posted May 3, 2013
The best book i have ever read. Great adventure. I couldn't put the book down! :D
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Candyroxs
Posted March 30, 2013
I love this so. In this world, Todd is the youngest "boy" in a all man planet. And on this planet you can hear everyones thoughts (even animals) or what they called Noise. Todd is living in that society a pretty normal life until he is forced to go away with only a few supplies, his dead mothers book, and his pet dog. That is untill he see's the first girl in his life, know Todd is starting to discover not everything he was told is true.
All I can say is read this book you will not regret it. At first I was a little iffy about reading this book (around the time I was only only reading paranormal romance) but I honestly fell for this book. The characters are great, even the animals. And in a weired sense I sorta liked the crazies too. The adventure and character development is just.....Wow. Also the relashinship between Todd and "the mystery girl" I adore. (p.s. fair warning many characters in this book speak with a strong southern accenet and that is how Patrick Ness writes so know those spelling mistakes are on there for a reason)
Anonymous
Posted March 26, 2013
Yes. Ugh
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Overview
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 ...