It’s a world full of NOISE. It’s a world where everything speaks. There is no silence. This is the world of The Knife of Never Letting Go.Set in New World, a planet where settlers have formed agricultural colonies, The Knife of Never Letting Go is the kind of book that just sneaks up on the reader. You meet Todd, a young boy who will become a man on his next birthday. He is the narrator and his pronunciations of certain words are that of an uneducated boy. The narrative is punctuated by changes in fonts, sometimes larger than the rest of the text, and often in bold text, symbolizing the NOISE. The reader is fully immersed in this world. Something is odd about this world. There are no women in Prentisstown. The children do not read, nor do they go to school. Todd is the last of the children. The reader is only able to see the world through Todd’s eyes, so we are not privy to all that is going on. Todd is counting down the days until he becomes a man. The story starts rather innocuously as a sort of coming of age story, but it is way more than that. It quickly becomes an intense, edge of your seat, hard to put down kind of read. It’s the story of two teenagers and their quest to find a peaceful Haven while they are being chased by an army and a very scary preacher. It is how two kids use their abilities and their knowledge to travel a long distance with numerous obstacles. I think that some of my favorite passages in the book involved the animals. Manchee the dog was hilarious, thinking thoughts that you would expect a dog to think. I loved the depiction of the large herd of cattle, calling out to each other. Ever wonder what a crocodile thinks before it chows down? It’s in this book.The Knife of Never Letting Go is a great start to the Chaos Walking series. If you are looking for a good dystopian, young adult book, look no further.
