Take a photo of a barcode or cover
justbeingjewel 's review for:
Monsters of Men
by Patrick Ness
3.5/5
“Choices may be unbelievably hard but they're never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that's not how a person with integrity acts.”
Monsters of Men is the final book in Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking Trilogy. This trilogy features a young teenager named Todd who lives in Prentisstown, a town of only men on a planet that projects their thoughts and feelings in the form of something called Noise. Noise is endless, and nearly impossible to control, and it can be just generally overwhelming for both the person hearing it and the person creating it. It’s driven some men a little mad. Todd’s Uncles, Ben and Cillian, help him and his loveable and loyal dog Manchee escape the town one day, but the world outside of Prentisstown is nothing like Todd has been taught and he’s utterly unprepared for this world.
Monsters of Men jumps right back into the same never ending action that the previous two books had. This is one of the most likeable things about the books to me, that everything moves so quickly. I suppose everything would have to move quickly when you have three armies struggling to gain advantage over each other, our three main characters all on opposing sides. This book doesn’t cut back on the violence, the lives lost in war and the devastating number of casualties are not brushed aside, the constant destruction of life and resources at the expense of innocent people is really what makes monsters of men. While depicting the chaos and complete injustice of war, Ness does a good job of finding the gray area. Nothing is black and white, nothing is good or bad. The Mayor seems to be an inherently bad person, who only wants war and destruction, but he does kind things for Todd. Mistress Coyle appears to only want the good deed of bringing down the mayor, but at what cost to others? Also a huge thanks to Ness for not making this a bad love triangle between Lee, Todd, and Viola. All three of these characters, while harboring romantic interests, were way too busy, y’know, fighting a war to really worry too much about romance.They were often times more worried just about the other person’s general safety.
While I loved the pacing and the well rounded characters, I wasn’t all that big of a fan of the point of view changes. This book swapped between Viola, Todd, and the spackle 1017’s points of view, which wasn’t the annoying part, it was how it was done. The point of view always changed at the cliffhanger. Once or twice I wouldn’t have minded, I’m completely down for some well written suspense, but when it happens over, and over, and over and over, I’m just exasperated by the time I actually get to the resolution of the cliffhanger.
I also have to dock a few points because Monsters of Men felt repetitive. How many times did someone have to go meet with the spackle because they wanted peace? How many times did Mistress Coyle or the Mayor have to prolong the fighting? How many times did they have to prepare for another battle? It began to feel tiresome, and I often found myself internally screaming, someone just kill the Mayor for the sake of my sanity.
Overall, these books were rather enjoyable and I’d definitely recommend to anyone looking for a breath of fresh air in the YA world. The exploration of morals, sacrifice, destruction in war, and coming of age are all well done in a different and unique universe, unlike any I’ve read before.
“Choices may be unbelievably hard but they're never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that's not how a person with integrity acts.”
Monsters of Men is the final book in Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking Trilogy. This trilogy features a young teenager named Todd who lives in Prentisstown, a town of only men on a planet that projects their thoughts and feelings in the form of something called Noise. Noise is endless, and nearly impossible to control, and it can be just generally overwhelming for both the person hearing it and the person creating it. It’s driven some men a little mad. Todd’s Uncles, Ben and Cillian, help him and his loveable and loyal dog Manchee escape the town one day, but the world outside of Prentisstown is nothing like Todd has been taught and he’s utterly unprepared for this world.
Monsters of Men jumps right back into the same never ending action that the previous two books had. This is one of the most likeable things about the books to me, that everything moves so quickly. I suppose everything would have to move quickly when you have three armies struggling to gain advantage over each other, our three main characters all on opposing sides. This book doesn’t cut back on the violence, the lives lost in war and the devastating number of casualties are not brushed aside, the constant destruction of life and resources at the expense of innocent people is really what makes monsters of men. While depicting the chaos and complete injustice of war, Ness does a good job of finding the gray area. Nothing is black and white, nothing is good or bad. The Mayor seems to be an inherently bad person, who only wants war and destruction, but he does kind things for Todd. Mistress Coyle appears to only want the good deed of bringing down the mayor, but at what cost to others? Also a huge thanks to Ness for not making this a bad love triangle between Lee, Todd, and Viola. All three of these characters, while harboring romantic interests, were way too busy, y’know, fighting a war to really worry too much about romance.They were often times more worried just about the other person’s general safety.
While I loved the pacing and the well rounded characters, I wasn’t all that big of a fan of the point of view changes. This book swapped between Viola, Todd, and the spackle 1017’s points of view, which wasn’t the annoying part, it was how it was done. The point of view always changed at the cliffhanger. Once or twice I wouldn’t have minded, I’m completely down for some well written suspense, but when it happens over, and over, and over and over, I’m just exasperated by the time I actually get to the resolution of the cliffhanger.
I also have to dock a few points because Monsters of Men felt repetitive. How many times did someone have to go meet with the spackle because they wanted peace? How many times did Mistress Coyle or the Mayor have to prolong the fighting? How many times did they have to prepare for another battle? It began to feel tiresome, and I often found myself internally screaming, someone just kill the Mayor for the sake of my sanity.
Overall, these books were rather enjoyable and I’d definitely recommend to anyone looking for a breath of fresh air in the YA world. The exploration of morals, sacrifice, destruction in war, and coming of age are all well done in a different and unique universe, unlike any I’ve read before.