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hemmyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Murder
Moderate: Vomit, Animal cruelty, Violence, Misogyny, Xenophobia, War, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Death of parent
arctoarcturus's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I really enjoyed the writing and overall themes -- a lot of great and thoughtful concepts, creative writing styles and extremely emotive. I would have given it four stars except for the utterly exhausting and traumatic plot. These kids can't catch a break, almost to the point of me wanting to put the book down completely. I often felt tense out of sheer frustration while reading because it seemed like the author was intentionally flipping the table before the reader had a chance to recover from the last upsetting episode. And while I get that this was probably a purposeful writing device, it made my experience of the book far less enjoyable, not because I was empathizing with the characters, but because I was feeling exasperation towards the author.
While I'd love to keep reading the series to dive deeper into the concepts and characters, I'm not sure I have the energy for all the trauma porn.
While I'd love to keep reading the series to dive deeper into the concepts and characters, I'm not sure I have the energy for all the trauma porn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Gun violence, Xenophobia, and Animal death
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Genocide, War, and Torture
desiderium_incarnate's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
"We don't say nothing more. What else is there to say? Everything and nothing. You can't say everything, so you don't say nothing."
Das tat weh. Ich glaube nicht, dass ich dieses Buch so schnell vergessen kann. Es ist so unglaublich, brutal, aggressiv, verzweifelt, verwirrt und liebevoll. Es steckt voller Verluste und Entscheidungen und (falscher) Informationen von Menschen, die man sein Leben lang kennt. Es geht um Neuanfänge, die unerwartet schief gehen, sprechende Hunde, die verstummt werden (der Hauptcharakter ist kein John Wick aber die beiden würden sich sicher verstehen) und (das) Unbekannte, was als Feind angesehen wird. Es ist unfassbar schlimm und ich bin so schockiert. Warum zur Hölle lese ich so etwas gerade eben?
Ich weiß nicht, ob ich diese Geschichte weiterempfehlen würde, ich bezweifle es, warum sollte ich andere leiden sehen wollen, nicht in diesem Ausmaß!
Ich mag dieses Buch nicht, es ist ist so kreativ und überzeugend gestaltet aber für mich zu heftig. Ich respektiere es aber. Es ist ein starkes Werk. Es hat mich nur ziemlich geschafft.
"Doing what's right should be easy. It shouldn't be just another big mess like everything else."
Das tat weh. Ich glaube nicht, dass ich dieses Buch so schnell vergessen kann. Es ist so unglaublich, brutal, aggressiv, verzweifelt, verwirrt und liebevoll. Es steckt voller Verluste und Entscheidungen und (falscher) Informationen von Menschen, die man sein Leben lang kennt. Es geht um Neuanfänge, die unerwartet schief gehen, sprechende Hunde, die verstummt werden (der Hauptcharakter ist kein John Wick aber die beiden würden sich sicher verstehen) und (das) Unbekannte, was als Feind angesehen wird. Es ist unfassbar schlimm und ich bin so schockiert. Warum zur Hölle lese ich so etwas gerade eben?
Ich weiß nicht, ob ich diese Geschichte weiterempfehlen würde, ich bezweifle es, warum sollte ich andere leiden sehen wollen, nicht in diesem Ausmaß!
Ich mag dieses Buch nicht, es ist ist so kreativ und überzeugend gestaltet aber für mich zu heftig. Ich respektiere es aber. Es ist ein starkes Werk. Es hat mich nur ziemlich geschafft.
"Doing what's right should be easy. It shouldn't be just another big mess like everything else."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Death, Murder, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and War
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
ellioteverafter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
4.0
A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again.
I devoured this book. I read it all in a day, and for good reason. Patrick Ness is an author who never fails to capture my attention so completely, nor to driver blow after emotional blow. Thankfully, this read wasn't too heavy, but I'm sure my continuation of the series will change that, for better or worse.
Todd Hewitt, good fucking luck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Xenophobia
Minor: Rape
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
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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