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daringreader13's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
4.0 out of 5 stars
This book pulled me in from the start. The language was a bit hard to understand at the beginning but as I kept reading it became easier. Can't wait to pick up the next book and keep going with the series
Edited 4/23/23
OH MY GOD. Reading this along with the audiobook made it ten thousand times better! I literally reacted out loud so many times and never wanted to put it down. It didn’t help that I had two dogs in my lap and one by my feet at a certain point in the book
This book pulled me in from the start. The language was a bit hard to understand at the beginning but as I kept reading it became easier. Can't wait to pick up the next book and keep going with the series
Edited 4/23/23
OH MY GOD. Reading this along with the audiobook made it ten thousand times better! I literally reacted out loud so many times and never wanted to put it down. It didn’t help that I had two dogs in my lap and one by my feet at a certain point in the book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Gore, Violence, War, Death of parent, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Genocide, Sexism, and Vomit
darnays's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Murder, Sexism, War, and Religious bigotry
nenaveenstra's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Dit boek begon erg traag, en was heel frustrerend, omdat veel informatie werd achtergehouden. Niet alleen voor de lezer, maar ook voor het hoofdpersonage, Todd Hewitt. Hij wordt op pad gestuurd en krijgt een boek mee waar informatie in staat, die hij niet kan lezen, omdat hij dat nooit geleerd heeft - en vervolgens is hij te trots om iemand te vragen om hem te helpen. Na ongeveer twee derde van het boek heeft Todd wat meer kennis van zaken en dan wordt het tempo ook een stukje omhoog geschroefd. Dan pas wordt het eigenlijk echt leuk, en ook emotioneel.
Ik vond het goed aan dit boek dat het een soort commentaar levert op de manier waarop mensen omgaan met het onbekende en het onbegrip dat tussen mannen en vrouwen bestaat. Ik zou niet zo ver willen gaan om te zeggen dat dit een feministisch boek is, en het commentaar op kolonialisme dat dit boek had kunnen geven mist ook een beetje, maar het doet een goede poging. Ik had wel meer écht sci-fi-achtige elementen willen zien, want hoewel dit boek zich afspeelt op een andere planeet dan de onze (de Nieuwe Wereld), voelde het toch als een aards boek, afgezien van de Herrie en neergestorte ruimteschepen.
Ik kan niet zeggen dat ik helemaal weg was van dit boek, maar gaandeweg heb ik wel een zwak ontwikkeld voor Todd en Viola en ik ben benieuwd naar de rest van de serie.
Ik vond het goed aan dit boek dat het een soort commentaar levert op de manier waarop mensen omgaan met het onbekende en het onbegrip dat tussen mannen en vrouwen bestaat. Ik zou niet zo ver willen gaan om te zeggen dat dit een feministisch boek is, en het commentaar op kolonialisme dat dit boek had kunnen geven mist ook een beetje, maar het doet een goede poging. Ik had wel meer écht sci-fi-achtige elementen willen zien, want hoewel dit boek zich afspeelt op een andere planeet dan de onze (de Nieuwe Wereld), voelde het toch als een aards boek, afgezien van de Herrie en neergestorte ruimteschepen.
Ik kan niet zeggen dat ik helemaal weg was van dit boek, maar gaandeweg heb ik wel een zwak ontwikkeld voor Todd
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Violence
Moderate: Sexism and Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
chaptersonapage's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. It follows Todd Hewitt, a boy from Prentisstown who is nearing his thirteenth birthday. The day he becomes a man.
Things work differently in Todd’s world. After there was something called the noise germ that was released on the population, two big things happened. One, everyone began to hear the thoughts of everyone else. Two, the female population was wiped out. This is the life Todd Hewitt knows and has grown up with since he was a baby. That’s going to be turned upside down though when he discovers something that shouldn’t be possible. He finds a girl, and she has no noise.
The premise of this story is interesting. It’s different with the way everyone can read everyone else’s mind, but it seems like they can still figure out ways to hide things from each other if they train themselves enough. It was also cool to see the animal’s thoughts in the world too. Initially I wasn’t sure if I liked this or not, but the way it was written worked out well. The more intelligent animals had more to say than others, and every type of animal seemed to have its own unique way of speaking. Manchee especially wormed his way into my heart.
The writing itself took some time for me to get used to, and while I understand it’s use, I don’t think I ever really warmed up to it at all. Even though a lot of the things were written with phonetic spellings, it was hard for me to read the words when they popped up. Small things like ‘yer’ for ‘your’ were negligible and I could read on fine, but the bigger words always stopped me and pulled me out of the moment as my brain caught up with what the book was saying. I think it was a good stylistic choice though and it wasn’t overdone. There was just enough to represent the world without it being too much.
All the characters were interesting to read about as well. My favorite was Manchee, Todd’s dog. I am a fierce animal lover, and he’s such a good pup. He’s loyal to Todd and, even though Todd didn’t want a dog at first, they become closer as the book goes on. You can feel their connection and I found myself wanting to pet and hug Manchee! Since I obviously can’t with a fictional dog, I forced my own into big hugs!!
Todd is interesting too, though his perspective would annoy me from time to time. He’s pretty naive in the beginning, and it takes a lot of the book for him to open up to things. This was made especially frustrating when he would be told something and we would be pulled into his head rather than hearing the conversation play out. We would hear his thoughts of doubt and disbelief over it, but we wouldn’t hear what he was doubting or disbelieving. We’re left with his denial and have to keep reading and reading to see him finally start to accept the truth. Still, he had a lot of good qualities. He was strong willed and determined. He goes through a lot and his perseverance was really admirable.
Viola is the last of the main three characters, and she was an interesting one. She’s silent. No thoughts are floating about in the noise from her, and she both confuses and intrigues Todd. Her story is a mystery, but it slowly unfolds throughout the story and we learn more about her as she opens up to Todd. I was really interested in her background, and I also felt myself feeling the frustration Todd felt at not knowing her thoughts. I think reading from her perspective would have been really neat since it would give insight on what it’s like for her living in the noise.
The best part of the novel was the way they grew together over the span of the book and how they go from distrusting to relying on one another. It’s definitely a book about survival, and it’s a long and hard fought one. It leaves off on a cliffhanger that I was pretty unhappy with, but thankfully the rest of the books are already out!
I’m glad I finally got around to reading this book. There were a few things that had me choose to rate this as a 4 instead of a 5, but it was a toss up for a while. I’m really interested to see how the movie version of the story plays out. I really hope with all the time they put into it, it does the story justice!
Things work differently in Todd’s world. After there was something called the noise germ that was released on the population, two big things happened. One, everyone began to hear the thoughts of everyone else. Two, the female population was wiped out. This is the life Todd Hewitt knows and has grown up with since he was a baby. That’s going to be turned upside down though when he discovers something that shouldn’t be possible. He finds a girl, and she has no noise.
The premise of this story is interesting. It’s different with the way everyone can read everyone else’s mind, but it seems like they can still figure out ways to hide things from each other if they train themselves enough. It was also cool to see the animal’s thoughts in the world too. Initially I wasn’t sure if I liked this or not, but the way it was written worked out well. The more intelligent animals had more to say than others, and every type of animal seemed to have its own unique way of speaking. Manchee especially wormed his way into my heart.
The writing itself took some time for me to get used to, and while I understand it’s use, I don’t think I ever really warmed up to it at all. Even though a lot of the things were written with phonetic spellings, it was hard for me to read the words when they popped up. Small things like ‘yer’ for ‘your’ were negligible and I could read on fine, but the bigger words always stopped me and pulled me out of the moment as my brain caught up with what the book was saying. I think it was a good stylistic choice though and it wasn’t overdone. There was just enough to represent the world without it being too much.
All the characters were interesting to read about as well. My favorite was Manchee, Todd’s dog. I am a fierce animal lover, and he’s such a good pup. He’s loyal to Todd and, even though Todd didn’t want a dog at first, they become closer as the book goes on. You can feel their connection and I found myself wanting to pet and hug Manchee! Since I obviously can’t with a fictional dog, I forced my own into big hugs!!
Todd is interesting too, though his perspective would annoy me from time to time. He’s pretty naive in the beginning, and it takes a lot of the book for him to open up to things. This was made especially frustrating when he would be told something and we would be pulled into his head rather than hearing the conversation play out. We would hear his thoughts of doubt and disbelief over it, but we wouldn’t hear what he was doubting or disbelieving. We’re left with his denial and have to keep reading and reading to see him finally start to accept the truth. Still, he had a lot of good qualities. He was strong willed and determined. He goes through a lot and his perseverance was really admirable.
Viola is the last of the main three characters, and she was an interesting one. She’s silent. No thoughts are floating about in the noise from her, and she both confuses and intrigues Todd. Her story is a mystery, but it slowly unfolds throughout the story and we learn more about her as she opens up to Todd. I was really interested in her background, and I also felt myself feeling the frustration Todd felt at not knowing her thoughts. I think reading from her perspective would have been really neat since it would give insight on what it’s like for her living in the noise.
The best part of the novel was the way they grew together over the span of the book and how they go from distrusting to relying on one another. It’s definitely a book about survival, and it’s a long and hard fought one. It leaves off on a cliffhanger that I was pretty unhappy with, but thankfully the rest of the books are already out!
I’m glad I finally got around to reading this book. There were a few things that had me choose to rate this as a 4 instead of a 5, but it was a toss up for a while. I’m really interested to see how the movie version of the story plays out. I really hope with all the time they put into it, it does the story justice!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Grief, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexism
durrareadsstuff's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I really enjoyed this book. The writing style is immersive and it's how the narrator/main character would actually tell the story. I wished there was a pov from Viola because I think her character could be more developed. The plot was amazing, and the twists I didn't see coming.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Genocide, and Colonisation
silver_lining125's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Sexism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Gun violence, and Grief
Minor: Torture and Suicide
stephsz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Violence and Death of parent
Minor: Sexism
arlorees's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Blood
charliebookfanatic's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
UPDATE 12/29/2020:
This is the second time that I have read this book. The first time my review was not that positive. I had problems with how the author interacted with Manchee, the dog, in this story and how he was treated as a mechanism for generating sympathy. This time I had fewer problems with that and I could shed a tear. Maybe it's because I've read almost all of Patrick Ness's work and I'm used to how he constructs his stories. It was still a book that was nice to read with a lot of action, although I did notice how much description of the environment is actually in this book.
My favorite part is still how this world is built. It's a unique concept and really something I've never read in any other book.
Last time I gave it three stars and now I'm taking that up to four because I got a lot more fun out of it. The next two books in this series were, in my opinion, better than this first book, so I'm curious to see what I see with a re-reading.
----------------------------
I had so many problems with this book. Todd was so unlikable and I normally don't mind that, but he hit his dog so many times. I can't like someone who abuses his dog. Maybe his dog was annoying, but he was loyal to a fault and he didn't deserve what happened to him. I felt like Patrick Ness used Manchee as a means to create sympathy. That's not the way to do it. I normally cry in books, but I didn't cry a single tear about the events that happened in this one.
The writing was addictive and the story was fast-paced. There never was a dull moment and I did like how much action was going on all the time. The worldbuilding was my favourite part of this book. The way the rules were laid-out and the towns were built... I loved that.
This book ended on a huge cliffhanger and it does make me want to pick up the sequel. I'll see how it goes. Let's give book two a chance.
This is the second time that I have read this book. The first time my review was not that positive. I had problems with how the author interacted with Manchee, the dog, in this story and how he was treated as a mechanism for generating sympathy. This time I had fewer problems with that and I could shed a tear. Maybe it's because I've read almost all of Patrick Ness's work and I'm used to how he constructs his stories. It was still a book that was nice to read with a lot of action, although I did notice how much description of the environment is actually in this book.
My favorite part is still how this world is built. It's a unique concept and really something I've never read in any other book.
Last time I gave it three stars and now I'm taking that up to four because I got a lot more fun out of it. The next two books in this series were, in my opinion, better than this first book, so I'm curious to see what I see with a re-reading.
----------------------------
I had so many problems with this book. Todd was so unlikable and I normally don't mind that, but he hit his dog so many times. I can't like someone who abuses his dog. Maybe his dog was annoying, but he was loyal to a fault and he didn't deserve what happened to him. I felt like Patrick Ness used Manchee as a means to create sympathy. That's not the way to do it. I normally cry in books, but I didn't cry a single tear about the events that happened in this one.
The writing was addictive and the story was fast-paced. There never was a dull moment and I did like how much action was going on all the time. The worldbuilding was my favourite part of this book. The way the rules were laid-out and the towns were built... I loved that.
This book ended on a huge cliffhanger and it does make me want to pick up the sequel. I'll see how it goes. Let's give book two a chance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, and Gun violence
Minor: Blood, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Grief, and Sexism
nila's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Review from 2012: I finished this whirlwind of a book in a matter of days, and it was brilliant. The language takes some time getting used to, but it didn't bother me much after the first chapter. Ness is a patient and generous writer, he leads you carefully through the adventure using his language as a guide, but without underestimating you as reader. Everything seems right in the first of the three Chaos Walking novels, but there are times when I did feel that Ness didn't get it a 100% right... For example, I wish Todd had been older. Of course, innocence is a major theme in the book, but the mixture of juvenile misunderstanding and adult reflections seemed odd to me. How wonderful is Manchee? Manchee is such a gem, and in the beginning I was afraid Ness was going to overuse the perfectly-timed comedic inputs from the world's greatest dog, but he didn't. I wish I had a friend like Manchee.
Reread in 2021: Eight years later and finally being open to re-reading some old favourites, I decided to revisit this series in time for the film release. Of all the YA dystopian series that were released during *that* era, this series was my ride or die. Honestly, it's as good as I remember, perhaps even better. The book strikes the perfect balance between the character arcs and the plot. It is a very honest and at times brutal reminder of the darkest aspects of human nature and reading it now as an adult, the depictions of war, genocide, sexism, xenophobia and corruption seem more striking. I stand by my thought regarding Todd's age, I still wish Ness had written him older, especially considering I know how his relationship with Viola develops in the next books.
Reread in 2021: Eight years later and finally being open to re-reading some old favourites, I decided to revisit this series in time for the film release. Of all the YA dystopian series that were released during *that* era, this series was my ride or die. Honestly, it's as good as I remember, perhaps even better. The book strikes the perfect balance between the character arcs and the plot. It is a very honest and at times brutal reminder of the darkest aspects of human nature and reading it now as an adult, the depictions of war, genocide, sexism, xenophobia and corruption seem more striking. I stand by my thought regarding Todd's age, I still wish Ness had written him older, especially considering I know how his relationship with Viola develops in the next books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Xenophobia, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Torture and Sexual assault
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