The Knife of Never Letting Go

Hello there. As promised, I'm back with a review for The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

The Knife of Never Letting Go
by Patrick Ness

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?

This book was totally different from what I expected. It's a very original story and I think Patrick Ness has an interesting opinion on what it would be like to hear everyone's thoughts. But even though it's all very interesting and intriguing, I only gave this book two stars. I just didn't really warm up to it. The language takes a lot of getting used to and I never did completely. Since our narrator, Todd, doesn't know how to read and write properly, the story is written in his very strong accent and there are a lot of misspellings etc. This might make sense to some people but to me it was simply annoying.

Another thing I disliked was that we had to wait very very long to get some answers. At the beginning of the book, all these questions are brought up and we realize that Todd doesn't know half the truth about the town he lives in and the people he lives with, but we only find out about anything towards the end of the book. And at some points, Todd actually knew more than us, seeing some things in other people's noise that then were not explained to the reader. Which, to me, made the story kind of slow moving. Even though a lot is happening, nothing actually important to the story was going on, or at least that was my impression. I've read in other reviews how action packed the story is, but I really didn't feel the same way.

Even though this all sounds very negative, I didn't really hate the book. I quite enjoyed it while I was reading it. But I often find myself looking back after I finish a book and then discovering quite a lot of things I disliked. And it wasn't different with this one. So I can't really recommend it.

If you have read the book and now think I'm out of my mind for talking so badly about it, don't worry, there are also some parts I liked. And I will talk about them now, but won't be able to without spoiling part of the story. 

So, one thing I really liked about the book was Viola. I really enjoyed watching her develop from not-speaking to taking-over-at-important-parts. Like when they were travelling with Milf. I loved how she surprised me again and again and I really liked learning more about how she got there and what happened to her and her family.

I also really liked the friendship between Todd and Viola. You could really see it grow throughout the book and I loved reading about that. They fought and then made up again and it all seemed really honest and real to me. I also really enjoyed Todd's relationship with Manchee. At the beginning he was just this annoying dog but then he and Todd grew closer and closer, too, until I kind of forgot he was a dog. And then his death was really sad but somehow also necessary. That was when we really realized how much he meant to Todd.

And that brings me to my most hated character of the book. Aaron. I still can't make sense of what exactly he was and what he was doing. Why did he not die at any point throughout the book. Surely, his insuries would have killed any normal human being. And I can't make sense of the explanation he gave to Todd as to why he was chasing him. And we never really got an answer to why he decided to kill Todd at some point and take Viola instead. Nothing made sense to me, and I really didn't like how it was all "explained" in the end.

Which brings me on to my least favourite part of the book. The ending. I did not like it at all. And it didn't make me want to read the next book either. I mean, there really is no hope left, is there? Somehow, everyone who could've helped Todd and Viola is dead and we still don't really know what exactly Mayor Prentiss wants with Todd.

I mean, usually I read the ending of a first book in a series and I want to read the second book immediately because there are so many possibilities as to what's going to happen. And here I feel there are none. And that's why I probably won't pick up the second book. I just don't feel like getting back into that world again.

So, that was definitely not my favorite book. I gave it three stars on goodreads, but now I really don't feel like it even deserves that. And I feel bad talking like this about a book. But I really just did not enjoy this one.

Thank you anyway for reading!