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A review by mediaevalmuse
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
4.0
One of my colleagues recommended that I read this book, and since I trust her judgment, I decided to give it a whirl in between a streak of assignments and grading. The Knife of Never Letting Go is a young adult book, but don't let that deter any of you; it has some big themes and complicated morality that left me scratching my head.
Things I Liked
1. Writing Style: This book is set in a time/place where everyone can read each other’s thoughts, and Ness brilliantly captures that by writing the entire novel in first person using some stream of consciousness techniques. The book also uses different fonts to set apart Noise (the thoughts) from speech, and that visual difference on the page really makes an impact in the minds of the reader. Lastly, Ness uses incorrect grammar and spelling to reflect the narrator’s (Todd) lack of education - it was a good stylistic technique that made the connection between reader and character feel more unmediated.
2.Manchee: My love for the talking dog knows no bounds. I’ll leave it at that.
3. Themes/Symbolism: If you take this book at face value, I think it’s a lot less interesting than if you read the inspiration behind it. My copy of the book says that Ness got the idea for a world of Noise from our present world being full of technology (information being everywhere and always accessible via smartphones, etc.). While this book doesn’t read as anti-technology, I think that keeping inspiration in the back of your mind while reading makes for a more thought-provoking experience. Even when readers find out what’s really going on, this background info puts a new spin on the plot that isn’t otherwise apparent.
4.Relationships: I really liked that the relationship between the novel’s two main characters, Todd and Viola, wasn’t romantic and it wasn’t too friendly (they only know each other for a few days, I think), but it did develop and grow and turned into something heartwarming and emotional by the end of the book. If you're not into YA that contains a romance plot underneath a dystopian or science fiction narrative, this book will be a blissful relief from that.
Things I Didn't Like
1. Do People Not Really Die? There’s one character specifically who gets knocked around quite a bit and is seriously injured so many times that it’s a wonder he didn’t die the first time. I wasn’t really a fan, since it seemed almost comical that someone could just NOT DIE.
2. Endless Pursuit Plot: I’m not a huge fan of plots that revolve around being constantly pursued and require the characters to always be on the run. It gets tiring after a while, and though the tiring feeling may be the point, I wish there were other things going on than just running from a bad guy.
3. Symbolic Destruction: Ok, so this is a tiny spoiler.
4. Withholding Information: Maybe it was Ness’s intention to withhold a lot of information from the reader in order to make us feel more like Todd feels, but in a world where information is always available, this move felt frustrating (especially when Todd knows something that the reader doesn’t).
Recommendations: Definitely pick up this book if you're a fan of YA science fiction or dystopic fiction, particularly if you're interests are in mind-reading/telepathy. You might also like this book if you're interested in books involving religious extremism and space colonization, though don't expect there to be huge battles between aliens and humans.
Things I Liked
1. Writing Style: This book is set in a time/place where everyone can read each other’s thoughts, and Ness brilliantly captures that by writing the entire novel in first person using some stream of consciousness techniques. The book also uses different fonts to set apart Noise (the thoughts) from speech, and that visual difference on the page really makes an impact in the minds of the reader. Lastly, Ness uses incorrect grammar and spelling to reflect the narrator’s (Todd) lack of education - it was a good stylistic technique that made the connection between reader and character feel more unmediated.
2.Manchee: My love for the talking dog knows no bounds. I’ll leave it at that.
3. Themes/Symbolism: If you take this book at face value, I think it’s a lot less interesting than if you read the inspiration behind it. My copy of the book says that Ness got the idea for a world of Noise from our present world being full of technology (information being everywhere and always accessible via smartphones, etc.). While this book doesn’t read as anti-technology, I think that keeping inspiration in the back of your mind while reading makes for a more thought-provoking experience. Even when readers find out what’s really going on, this background info puts a new spin on the plot that isn’t otherwise apparent.
4.Relationships: I really liked that the relationship between the novel’s two main characters, Todd and Viola, wasn’t romantic and it wasn’t too friendly (they only know each other for a few days, I think), but it did develop and grow and turned into something heartwarming and emotional by the end of the book. If you're not into YA that contains a romance plot underneath a dystopian or science fiction narrative, this book will be a blissful relief from that.
Things I Didn't Like
1. Do People Not Really Die? There’s one character specifically who gets knocked around quite a bit and is seriously injured so many times that it’s a wonder he didn’t die the first time. I wasn’t really a fan, since it seemed almost comical that someone could just NOT DIE.
2. Endless Pursuit Plot: I’m not a huge fan of plots that revolve around being constantly pursued and require the characters to always be on the run. It gets tiring after a while, and though the tiring feeling may be the point, I wish there were other things going on than just running from a bad guy.
3. Symbolic Destruction: Ok, so this is a tiny spoiler.
Spoiler
Todd is being pursued because his downfall would mean the elevation of another person - symbolically. Without giving too much away, I want to say that I don’t like these blatant, in-your-face symbolic goals. For me, suspension of disbelief is harder when the villain is just pursuing a protagonist to destroy him/her just to make a symbolic point (as opposed to actually working to eliminate a threat).4. Withholding Information: Maybe it was Ness’s intention to withhold a lot of information from the reader in order to make us feel more like Todd feels, but in a world where information is always available, this move felt frustrating (especially when Todd knows something that the reader doesn’t).
Recommendations: Definitely pick up this book if you're a fan of YA science fiction or dystopic fiction, particularly if you're interests are in mind-reading/telepathy. You might also like this book if you're interested in books involving religious extremism and space colonization, though don't expect there to be huge battles between aliens and humans.