The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Thoughts On)

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1)
Author: Patrick Ness
Pages: 496
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

Summary from Goodreads:

A dystopian thriller follows a boy and girl on the run from a town where all thoughts can be heard — and the passage to manhood embodies a horrible secret.

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

This is my second Ness novel after reading A Monster Calls late last year. There is something about his writing that I just adore. I'm not the biggest fan of misspellings and dialect but by the end, I was reading it pretty quickly and not feeling as slowed down. Todd is quite a likable character and I was rooting for him throughout.

The basic premise - that all men's thoughts can be heard - is an interesting one to think about. I sure wouldn't want to hear all men's thoughts all.the.time. Can you imagine? The writing style used really captured that never ending Noise. It really was chaotic.

I love excellent world building and felt that was a bit lacking. Whatever was lacking in world building was made up in character development though. I felt like I actually knew Todd by the end. The one issue I had with his character was that he seemed way more grown up that the almost 13 years old he actually was. This could be because of his tough life and the way things were in Prentisstown but there were times when it really distracted me from the story.

My favorite character, by far, was Todd's dog, Manchee. Ness did such an excellent job imagining how a dog would speak, if he could. I enjoyed all of the scenes with him. For those who don't enjoy animals getting hurt, I hate to spoil anything but...he is. It was difficult to read but still heartwarming too because he WAS a dog and he loved Todd so very much.

This is a chunkster at almost 500 pages but it really did fly by. There were a few scenes in the end that had me scratching my head and going "huh?" but overall I really enjoyed it. And the ending killed me. I needed the next one right.that.minute.