Ever since I read A Monster Calls, I’ve wanted to try another book by Patrick Ness. I finally requested and read The Knife of Letting Go, the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy. In this book, humans live on New World, which appears to be a colonized planet. In this world, the thoughts of men and creatures alike are broadcast as Noise. The main character Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown, where there are only men. All of the women were killed by the virus that created the Noise in people’s heads. However, Todd Hewitt finds a girl in the swamp and a very dangerous secret, and he and Viola flee. And the hunt is on.
I had very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I found the plot very gripping: Ness knows how to write a fast-paced and engaging book. I liked the two main characters, Todd and Viola, and I thought that he did a good job of developing their relationship and the individual characters. However, something about the book overall frustrated me. Maybe, it was because I didn’t feel the setting and situations were as well-developed as they could have been. The setting made me tired; I don’t always have a problem with brutal world settings, but the sort of religious-based brutality was something that I’ve come across, and reading those parts made me feel tired. I enjoyed the first book, but am not sure I will hurry to read the sequels.
Personally I love all Patrick Ness books, for me the only furstrating thing is the cliff-hanger endings (in all of teh Chaos Walking series) and that there aren’t more books!