Escape from a society gone desperately awry

Ness, P. (2008). The knife of never letting go. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. Todd has never known a life without The Noise, the cacophony of hearing the thoughts of all those around him or keeping his own thoughts and feelings private from others. Orphaned at a young age, Todd has only his uncle to raise him and is the last boy living on the alien planet colony of Prentisstown, or so he thinks, until one day he finds a silent place in the Noise. This discovery leads him to Viola, the sole survivor of a colonization expedition that crash-landed in the swamp that surrounds Prentisstown.

But the plague Todd believes caused the Noise as well as the deaths of his mother and all the women of Prentisstown turns out to be a lie. Todd, Viola and Manchee, Todd’s loyal, talking dog, race for their lives in this first installment of the Chaos Walking trilogy. Their adventures lead to new discoveries and more questions as they attempt to piece together the truth of the society in which they live and why it went so terribly awry.

Each step of their journey introduces inventive new creatures and characters that seem unconnected, which sometimes detracts from the cohesiveness of the plot line; however, Ness never allows his characters to spend too much time in one setting, which keeps pace of the story moving. Unlike some science fiction novels though, Todd and Viola are well-developed, authentic, and believable characters the reader can relate to. Todd can barely read, in spite of his uncle’s best efforts. And notable is the unique vernacular in which he and Manchee think and speak. And no trilogy is complete without leaving the reader wondering what adventures await the characters in the next book, and Ness certainly delivers. In spite of the some of the choppy aspects of the plot line, The Knife of Never Letting Go is sure to satisfy readers of all forms of fiction and fantasy.

#sciencefiction #dystopiansociety #trilogy