The Knife of Never Letting Go

November 1, 2008
Gr 9 Up-Todd Hewitt lives in a world in which all women are dead, and the thoughts of men and animals are constantly audible as Noise. Graphically represented by a set of scratchy fonts and sentence fragments that run into and over each other, Noise is an oppressive chaos of words, images, and sounds that makes human company exhausting and no thought truly private. The history of these peculiar circumstances unfolds over the course of the novel, but Ness's basic world-building is so immediately successful that readers, too, will be shocked when Todd and his dog, Manchee, first notice a silence in the Noise. Realizing that he must keep the silence secret from the town leaders, he runs away, and his terrified flight with an army in pursuit makes up the backbone of the plot. The emotional, physical, and intellectual drama is well crafted and relentless. Todd, who narrates in a vulnerable and stylized voice, is a sympathetic character who nevertheless makes a few wrenching mistakes. Manchee and Aaron, a zealot preacher, function both as characters and as symbols. Tension, suspense, and the regular bombardment of Noise are palpable throughout, mitigated by occasional moments of welcome humor. The cliff-hanger ending is unexpected and unsatisfying, but the book is still a pleasure for sophisticated readers comfortable with the length and the bleak, literary tone."Megan Honig, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2008
Chased by a madman preacher and possibly the rest of his townsfolk as well, young Todd Hewitt flees his settlement on a planet where war with the natives has killed all thewomen and infected the men with a germ that broadcasts their thoughts aloud for all to hear. This cacophanous thought-cloud is known as Noise and is rendered with startling effectiveness on the page. The first of many secretsis revealed when Todd discovers an unsettling hole in the Noise, and quickly realizes that he lives in a much different world than the one he thought he did. Some of the central conceits of the drama can be hard to swallow, but the pure inventiveness and excitement of the telling more than make up for it. Narrated in a sortofpidgin Englishwith crack dramatic and comic timing by Todd and featuring one of the finest talking-dog characters anywhere, this troubling, unforgettable opener to the Chaos Walking trilogy is a penetrating look at the ways in which we reveal ourselves to one another, and what it takes to be a man in a society gone horribly wrong. The cliffhanger ending is as effective as a shot to the gut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2009
Todd lives in a brutal all-male society where thoughts are audible. He escapes, embarking on a classic coming-of-age survival journey accompanied by his loyal dog and a mysterious girl. Todd's world is fascinating, and the psychological and sociological impact of being unable to shut out others' thoughts--or hide your own--is creatively explored. The relationships, too, have considerable emotional depth.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2008
When Todd was a baby, a group of settlers, himself and his parents among them, landed on a faraway planet and contracted a "Noise" germ that makes all thoughts (even those of animals) audible. Growing up in the regimented, brutal all-male village of Prentisstown, Todd accepts the oppressive, omnipresent Noise, the absence of women (supposedly killed by Noise), and the vilification of the indigenous "Spackle" people without question -- until he encounters a strange pocket of silence, and his adoptive parents orchestrate his escape to another settlement he never knew existed. Pursued by Prentisstown's terrifying preacher, Todd embarks on a classic coming-of-age survival journey. He is accompanied by Manchee, a loyal dog whose simple thoughts are both annoyance and comfort, and a mysterious girl who has no trouble keeping her secrets: her thoughts are inexplicably silent. It's no great leap to guess the planet's true history, and while Ness builds tension around Prentisstown's murky backstory, he withholds information for a gratuitously long time, dulling the surprises when they are finally revealed. However, Todd's world is a fascinating one, and the psychological and sociological impact of being unable to shut out others' thoughts -- or hide your own -- is creatively explored. The relationships, too, are nuanced; slow to evolve, they have considerable emotional depth by the last page. Todd's colloquial voice is by turns defensive, belligerent, innocent, and desperate; the strength of his point of view and the subtle world-building contained in it make this series opener as promising as it is provocative.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)