2015 Book Review #51: The Knife of Never Letting Go

[jethrien]

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: YA Dystopian SF
Thingummies: 4.5

Synopsis: Todd has grown up in his dysfunctional town on a colony world where all the women died in a plague that gave the men and animals telepathy. But when he finds a crashed spaceship and a living girl, he discovers that the truth is even worse than he had been taught.

Thoughts: With heartwrenching angst and breathless pacing, this book drags you on a frantic run across a planet, never quite sure of any truth beyond the certainty that the army behind you is probably even worse than you know.

Is it a little over the top? Yes. It's YA, where the stakes can never be raised too high and parental death is always assured. But it's an enjoyable over-the-topness. The world-building is prolonged--it turns out most of the information we're given at the start is in fact lies--but well done. And Todd is believably brave but inept. He frequently fails and makes terrible decisions, but they're entirely understandable ones.

Really, the big complaint here is the "throw the book across the room" cliffhanger of an ending.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Oh, that series. ALL THE FEELS. I came to it late, so I read the first two close together and then imported book 3 from the UK because I couldn't wait. :-P

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I didn't pick them up until a couple weeks ago, so I literally read them all in a week.