The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness
Release Date: 2009 | 2010 | 2011
Publisher: Candlewick
Pages: 479 | 519 | 603
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Buy It: Amazon | Book Depository
Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee — whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not — stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden — a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.
But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought? – Goodreads
Review:
Finishing Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking books has been a long time coming. I first read The Knife of Never Letting Go in October of 2010 and I loved it. But I was also crushed by certain events, so I was terrified of what was to come in the following installments. I had The Ask and the Answer sitting in my bookshelf since then and I kept saying, “I’ll read it soon, I’ll read it soon,” but I never quite got the courage to actually pick it up. Aylee’s reviews (here and here) were definitely a motivation, but it wasn’t until my friend Linda sped through the series, and then began nagging me to get a move on, that I finally decided to go for it. I’m so glad! It was a draining roller coaster to read the series, but it’s easily become one of my absolute favorites. Here are some thoughts on each of the three books:
The Knife of Never Letting Go – Like I said, it’s been well over a year since I read it so here’s my initial review from goodreads: This one kept my heart pounding! With a first person, present tense narration, complete with Todd’s own dialect, it was very easy to get pulled in. With Todd being so young I wasn’t sure how much I would relate to his character, but I found myself valuing his growth as he learned the real meaning of becoming a man.The book went to some very dark, dark places, leaving me absolutely drained; I’m still mourning over a certain character’s death. I felt enough questions were answered along the way, but of course I’m anxious to get a start on the sequel. Fantastic read!
The Ask and the Answer – Can I just immediately say how seamlessly Patrick Ness is able to alternate between POVs? His character’s voices are so distinct, so different from the other, and he easily kept me fully immersed in both. Todd and Viola endured through SO much and their character arcs are some of my favorites in recent memory. Similarly, this book confirmed the complexity of the world and characters that Patrick Ness created. Though his book is set in another world, the themes he presented are so easily applicable to ours. Certain side characters? Wow…I had no idea that they could be redeemed and that I could grow to care for them so much. And, yes, I sobbed.
Monsters of Men – TODD AND VIOLA. THESE KIDS. I wanted to hold them close and keep them safe, but I was also so proud of their maturity, strength, and how they’re such genuinely good people. Thinking back to the first book it’s so easy to recall their innocence; it makes me so sad that they had to experience so much loss and so many struggles throughout the course of the series. Their relationship was subtle, beautifully depicted, and I loved how they drew strength from each other in the most bleak of situations. Patrick Ness continued to make a mess of my emotions with his characters. There was no clear good and evil in this series because the characters were so layered with flaws and complexities that captured the very essence of human nature.
Patrick Ness easily has one of my favorite endings for a book series in Monsters of Men. I know there are readers that are clamoring for more, but there was enough and there was hope — the perfect way to end it, in my opinion.
After having read this series and A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness easily earns a spot in my favorite authors list and a guarantee that I will read anything he writes. He is brilliant and captures so much emotion in his writing. Oh, and he makes me ugly cry every single time. I can’t wait to see what he writes next and I urge you to give Chaos Walking a read.
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About Stephanie
I’ve never read anything by Patrick Ness and now I want to! My poor tbr pile!
Ahhh, you definitely should! He has been amazing with every thing he’s written.
These. Books. So glad you got to the last book and loved it! I think I mentioned the same sense of hope in the end. I kinda wish we could’ve seen more, sure, but I also felt it was a great way to end such an amazing series. Monsters of Men has gotta be a book where I had absolutely no idea who to trust or what was going to happen. It was such a nail biter!
Read these books people!
YES, SO MUCH! My friend commented about how no character was safe, not even as the last pages were turned, and it is so true. I worried for them all and gah…Incredible book series. I really hope more people do pick them up — they deserve to be so much more popular.
“I had The Ask and the Answer sitting in my bookshelf since then and I kept saying, “I’ll read it soon, I’ll read it soon,” but I never quite got the courage to actually pick it up.”
I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve done this with certain books! I really want to pick them up and read them, but I’m terrified of what’s going to happen to the characters so I put it off and live in a little imaginary bubble where everyone is happy and healthy and whole:) I’ve heard such amazing things about this series, I really need to read it. The characters sound amazing, and I love feeling protective of them, wanting to shelter them from all the bad things in their world. Stunning review Stephanie!
Yes, exactly! It’s the hardest thing to have characters go through super difficult things and, truly, the first book really shook me up. The last two installments hurt SO much, but I’m glad I finished the journey with Todd and Viola. I really hope you pick them up; I would love to read your reviews on them!
I actually didn’t like The Knife of Never Letting Go, and so I never ended up reading the rest of the books..:) I’m not even sure what I didn’t like about it, but I think the writing (the purposely misspelled words etc) just annoyed me too much:P
Oh, no, don’t tell me that!!! Haha, no, I understand how off putting the writing style could be. It took me some time to get used to it. If it helps any, the next two books improve on that somewhat. ;)
Yay, I’m glad you took the plunge! They were such draining reads, weren’t they? But I think if there’s one thing that kept me reading and not getting totally depressed, is that there was always the presence of hope, like you mentioned. I had so much hope and faith in the goodness of Todd and Viola (and Wilf!), that I just knew, no matter how dark things became, that they would pull through and never compromise their integrity.
I also really loved the complexity of the characters, good and bad, and how no one was completely good or evil. Even the Mayor, as we find out in the end (loved that scene!).
The POVs were excellently well done, I agree. What did you think of the inclusion of 1017′s POV in Monsters of Men? I really loved the evolution of the concept of Noise from being considered a curse to being something to embrace.
I still need to read A Monster Calls! I hope to get to it this year.
Ahhh, you said it perfectly. I know I’m attached to these characters when your comment makes me want to cry, haha. I really appreciated the shades of grey Patrick Ness gave them all because it’s so true to life and it’s a change from the HERE’S AN ANNOYINGLY PERFECT CHOSEN ONE and HERE’S THE VILLAIN DOING EVIL THINGS. People do messed up things, but sometimes they think they’re doing the right thing…or doing the right thing appears to be something awful to someone else. I loved that Patrick Ness was willing to explore all those layers.
1017′s POV was SUCH a surprise to me. The first time it came up I was left thinking, “What is this?!” but I thought it worked so well and, again, added to the complexity of the characters and story.
I hope you love A Monster Calls as much as I did!
Truth be told, I was never going to start this series. This LOOKS like an emotionally wrenching read from MILES AWAY, so I thought I’d pass it up. That, and I’ve never read anything by Patrick Ness. But with all this buzz, and now you’re EXCELLENT review, going on about how he brilliantly captures emotion in a way that makes you FEEL so deeply, well, I’m going to have to give this series a whirl. For reals.
These still remain the very best books I have ever read. Seriously. Nothing tops these. I cannot wait for his next book either Stephanie!
WOW. This series sounds nothing short of INCREDIBLE. I can’t tell you how long I’ve had a copy of The Knife of Never Letting Go just sit in my bookshelf, unread, never moving up on my TBR. New books came in and kept pushing it down, down, down. But now? GOOD GOD, I NEED TO READ THIS ASAP!
Thank you for your amazing review, but damn you for your amazing review. My TBR is not happy :P But eeeeee, so excited to read it. I hope I love them as much as you so clearly do! <3