Running from Their Thoughts

Happy first snow day, Hayden! Looks like it is actually sticking in the city now, so I figure we have officially hit the snow season. Drive safe and stay warm. :)

Yesterday, I was off visiting a local school with a special guest (more on Friday), so I wasn’t able to get the book blurt out on time. But, here we go for a Thursday book blurt.

The reason I read this book goes back…hmmm…must be a year or so. Karen had the chance to read The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, and she absolutely loved it! She quickly read the second (The Ask and the Answer), and couldn’t wait for the third one (Monsters of Men) to come out. When she got her advanced reader’s copy (one perk of being a librarian) she devoured it very quickly. Well, juxtapose this on top of Karen’s desire for me to read a book a week. Once she finished reading it, she would ask me if I had read it yet. I would then say no, and she would ask me if I had read any other books. Nothing like a little accountability to help you do what you know you need to do.

All that to say, that it is a very interesting, fast-paced, and well written book. The novel opens with Todd Hewitt, the last boy in Prentisstown, a month before he becomes a man. The town has a boy becoming a man ceremony when a boy turns thirteen, and Todd’s turn is coming quick. But, while walking in the swamp near the town, Todd hears something that he can’t explain; silence. See, the men of Prentisstown hear everything that everyone else in the town thinks. They call it Noise, and it was a plague unleashed on mankind after they settled New World. So, when Todd hears a lack of Noise in a living, breathing, moving object, it turns his whole world upside down. Especially because the men of Prentisstown, the men he has lived with for his entire life, are now trying to kill him.

The Knife of Never Letting Go is a great book. You very quickly get sucked into the story, and it doesn’t want to let you go. It is filled with suspense, and a word of caution, there is violence throughout the story. There are also quite a few swear words that are thrown around or implied. (Both elements are realistic for the story, but if you don't agree with using violence and swear words in a book, then this book might not be your best option). Wrapped inside this tale of suspense and violence, is a very human examination of why people endure through hard times. Todd has to come face to face with the reason he gets through all of the hard stuff, and why he will continue surviving through all of the hard stuff.