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A review by readingkitten
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
2.0
This review was posted on my blog:
http://thereadingkitten.blogspot.nl/2014/01/review-knife-of-never-letting-go-by.html
The Knife of Never Letting Go wasn't for me. I was excited to read it, because I had heard great things about this trilogy and I actually own a physical copy of the first book. Most of my goodreads friends have rated this first book four or five stars, so I figured it would be great. Sadly, I really didn't like it at all. I read about 52% and then I gave up. I could've read more if I wanted to, because I didn't absolutely hate the book, but that's just the thing... I didn't want to read more of it. I also didn't see myself liking the book any better by finishing it, it just felt like I'd be wasting my time.
First of all there's the writing style of the book. It's very different and it took a lot of getting used to on my part. Some words are spelled differently (mostly phonetically) and I would give an example, but I actually read a translation of the book, so I don't know what the English version is like. I didn't hate the misspellings, but I didn't particularly like them either.
Another thing that I didn't really like about the writing is that we're basically constantly reading everything that the main character, Todd, is thinking. There were a lot of long paragraphs in which Todd was thinking about something random and even though most of the time these thoughts were sort of relevant to the story, I thought they were way too long and quite boring most of the time. It slowed down the pacing of the book and I didn't like that.
The characters were okay. I didn't find Todd to be a very likeable main character. He was also quite young for a protagonist in a YA novel (13-or-so). The talking dog, Manchee, was quite funny in the beginning, but it got a bit old after a while. Violet was okay. I didn't really care for her. I didn't really care for anyone, to be honest.
I also felt like nothing was really happening in the book... Which is strange, because now that I think about it, quite a lot happened in the pages that I read. However, the things that happened didn't excite me at all. I felt like there wasn't really anything that we were building towards. The characters are being chased by a bunch of guys, but we don't really know why... I just would've liked some more information about things to make the story more interesting for me.
I really had to push myself to keep reading and give the story a chance. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, but it didn't. Maybe it's strange to give a book that I didn't even finish a two-star rating, but I felt like one star would be a bit too harsh. As I said, I didn't hate the story. It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but the whole thing just didn't captivate me. I didn't care about anything that was happening and it just bored me.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend this book and I won't be reading the rest of the trilogy, but it's hard to say who would enjoy this book and who wouldn't. A lot of people seem to absolutely love this trilogy, so if it sounds interesting to you, just give it a try, I'd say. It just really wasn't my thing.
http://thereadingkitten.blogspot.nl/2014/01/review-knife-of-never-letting-go-by.html
The Knife of Never Letting Go wasn't for me. I was excited to read it, because I had heard great things about this trilogy and I actually own a physical copy of the first book. Most of my goodreads friends have rated this first book four or five stars, so I figured it would be great. Sadly, I really didn't like it at all. I read about 52% and then I gave up. I could've read more if I wanted to, because I didn't absolutely hate the book, but that's just the thing... I didn't want to read more of it. I also didn't see myself liking the book any better by finishing it, it just felt like I'd be wasting my time.
First of all there's the writing style of the book. It's very different and it took a lot of getting used to on my part. Some words are spelled differently (mostly phonetically) and I would give an example, but I actually read a translation of the book, so I don't know what the English version is like. I didn't hate the misspellings, but I didn't particularly like them either.
Another thing that I didn't really like about the writing is that we're basically constantly reading everything that the main character, Todd, is thinking. There were a lot of long paragraphs in which Todd was thinking about something random and even though most of the time these thoughts were sort of relevant to the story, I thought they were way too long and quite boring most of the time. It slowed down the pacing of the book and I didn't like that.
The characters were okay. I didn't find Todd to be a very likeable main character. He was also quite young for a protagonist in a YA novel (13-or-so). The talking dog, Manchee, was quite funny in the beginning, but it got a bit old after a while. Violet was okay. I didn't really care for her. I didn't really care for anyone, to be honest.
I also felt like nothing was really happening in the book... Which is strange, because now that I think about it, quite a lot happened in the pages that I read. However, the things that happened didn't excite me at all. I felt like there wasn't really anything that we were building towards. The characters are being chased by a bunch of guys, but we don't really know why... I just would've liked some more information about things to make the story more interesting for me.
I really had to push myself to keep reading and give the story a chance. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, but it didn't. Maybe it's strange to give a book that I didn't even finish a two-star rating, but I felt like one star would be a bit too harsh. As I said, I didn't hate the story. It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but the whole thing just didn't captivate me. I didn't care about anything that was happening and it just bored me.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend this book and I won't be reading the rest of the trilogy, but it's hard to say who would enjoy this book and who wouldn't. A lot of people seem to absolutely love this trilogy, so if it sounds interesting to you, just give it a try, I'd say. It just really wasn't my thing.