Scan barcode
A review by trina_reads
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. The story line was great; interesting, suspenseful, and the ending was such a cliff-hanger, one of the better cliff-hangers I've read in a book that's a part of a series. One that makes you want to go out and buy the next book right away because you want to know what's happened. Most of the cliff-hangers in series these days are still fairly resolved, so there's no urgency like there is with this one.
I really wanted to rate this five stars, but I can't. I absolutely hated the terrible spelling in this book, and I know it was done on purpose. I know Todd, the main character, is a twelve year old kid on an alien planet and he doesn't really know how to read and write, but that could have just been indicated by his bad grammar and the speech that was obviously telling of New Worlders. I feel as if the author didn't need to make sure we knew that we were in a different place by spelling words "tho", "thru", "yer", and any time a word ended in "ation" or some similar sound, by using "ayshun". It really, really bugged me. I just couldn't stop thinking that if this is a book marketed at young readers (my copy says "Winner Guardian Children's Fiction Prize" at the top), what a terrible, terrible thing to make children think that this incorrect spelling is acceptable. I don't think it added anything to the story at all; the story, the characters, everything would have been just as good with proper spelling. I know that authors do their best to make sure we feel completely absorbed in to the setting of a story, but I felt like this was completely unnecessary, and it was really just annoying. This book is still great enough to receive a high rating and a lot of praise, but I felt like I couldn't rate it the full five stars I would have because of the spelling.
I really wanted to rate this five stars, but I can't. I absolutely hated the terrible spelling in this book, and I know it was done on purpose. I know Todd, the main character, is a twelve year old kid on an alien planet and he doesn't really know how to read and write, but that could have just been indicated by his bad grammar and the speech that was obviously telling of New Worlders. I feel as if the author didn't need to make sure we knew that we were in a different place by spelling words "tho", "thru", "yer", and any time a word ended in "ation" or some similar sound, by using "ayshun". It really, really bugged me. I just couldn't stop thinking that if this is a book marketed at young readers (my copy says "Winner Guardian Children's Fiction Prize" at the top), what a terrible, terrible thing to make children think that this incorrect spelling is acceptable. I don't think it added anything to the story at all; the story, the characters, everything would have been just as good with proper spelling. I know that authors do their best to make sure we feel completely absorbed in to the setting of a story, but I felt like this was completely unnecessary, and it was really just annoying. This book is still great enough to receive a high rating and a lot of praise, but I felt like I couldn't rate it the full five stars I would have because of the spelling.