The Knife of Never Letting Go

Todd Hewitt is a Prentisstown boy. The last Prentisstown boy in a town full of men and their noise. The never ending stream of their noise which is the thoughts and images in their head. Everyone can hear everyone's thoughts and there is no escape, even animals noise can be heard by people, but when Todd stumbles across an area of dead silence he soon finds out the town has a dark secret. A secret so terrible he must flee for his life along with his dog Manchee. I have to say I truly loved this book. I loved Todd's stubborn innocence, I loved Viola's strong silence, I loved Hildy and Manchee and all the other characters that helped Todd and despised those who sought to hurt him. Patrick Ness has this perfect and unique way of writing that captures every part of the world and characters he has created so perfectly without you feeling like the story isn't really be from the perspective of a 12 year old boy or that he has lost the detail trying to tell the story from the point of a child. It's a hard balance but somehow he does it brilliantly. What Todd knows you know, but only when it is important enough for him to think about it which starts the book off with a lot of unanswered questions. And for the most part of the book you feel just as confused as Todd, as well as everything else he feels. Information is slowly fed to you; not enough to be overwhelming, not enough to really satisfy you, but enough to keep you deeply enthralled. A testament to how much I enjoyed this book is that when I saw the sequel to it in W H Smiths I bought it straight away. That's right- I was even willing to pay full RRP for it, which I never do. I am a true Amazon and Book Depository whore. I can't really talk much about this book, so much in it happens and so often it changes your perspective that if I even go beyond the first few chapters I will spoil things for you and you really need to join Todd on his journey, but I will say this, this book has more twists than a snake and just because you know what a man is thinking doesn't mean you really know what is in his head.show more