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Oct 16, 2011

I am shocked. I am speechless. I don't even think I can do this book justice by writing this review. My first reaction is just to scream "OH MY EFFING GOD!!!" (only I don't say "effing"! heh heh … Well, if you've read the books you get the joke) … which is exactly what I said about fifty times after I finished reading it last night.

Seriously, it isn't often that a book like this comes along. I don't think a book has left me feeling this shocked and amazed in years More...

55 comments like (82 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Mariel rated it:

"The leaders of men
Born out of your frustration
The leaders of men
Just a strange infatuation
The leaders of men
Made a promise for a new life
No savior for our sakes
To twist the internees of hate
Self-induced manipulation
To crush all thoughts of mass salvation"
- 'Leaders of Men' by Joy Division

Patrick Ness?

Patrick Ness says: "Even in a society where we're constantly being told to 'be be oursel More...

8 comments like (16 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

karen rated it:

this lower-than-five-stars rating is probably my fault. i had to put the book down because of life (stupid life) so there was a whole day there where i didn't get to read a single word of this, and i may have simply lost my momentum as a result.

this book is still fantastic.

it is a slower-paced, more meditative book than the other two. before, it was all breakneck excitement and every time the characters seemed to be able to pause for breath - blammo! another effin More...

9 comments like (42 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Isamlq rated it:

Two words: Emotional Investment.

This review is me on a soapbox ~~telling~~ shouting at anyone/everyone within hearing distance to read it… NOW! So, I guess, this review isn't a review after all. Right before I started Monsters, I was so worried if Ness would kill off one, some, or all his characters. Then I asked myself, “Is that all you can think of?” My response: a resounding, YES! My concern extending to the living or dying of these people, clearly establishes my emotional investment More...

7 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Lisa rated it:

Reading Monsters of Men is like being on a roller coaster. At first it feels fairly slow, with tension building and building, and then you're hurtling down and hanging on for dear life. It took me several days to get through the first 200 pages or so, and then the last 400 I polished off in several hours.

The moral ambiguity of The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer (can Patrick Ness title a book or what?) continues as Todd and Viola attempt to negotiate peace am More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2012

Jaime rated it:

WAR..
Is blasting and flashing at the forefront of this book, with the Mayor Prentiss hell bent on it, destruction and absolute power. But what the books are really about and what flows on every page is so much more and as the 'reader' you're submerged in it, to the point where you feel the shrapnel wizz past your face.

Choice and the price of your choices and the affect that one person's choice can have on others, like a ripple across a pond. And what War is, and what it means More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2011

*Zanib* rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Karin rated it:

MONSTERS OF MEN is the wonderful conclusion to the Chaos Walking Trilogy. It picks up where THE ASK AND THE ANSWER leaves off – right at the beginning of WAR! The Spackle, the Answer, and the Mayor’s army are all converging on New Prentisstown and Todd and Viola are stuck in the middle.

Patrick Ness creates the same heart-pounding suspense in this novel as he did in the first two in the trilogy. Multiple points of view give the reader a full understanding of what is happening.
More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Jo rated it:

This review is going to be one huge spoiler if you haven't read the first two books.... just a heads up.

<spoiler>
Initial Final Page Thoughts
Flabbergasted. Emotionally drained. But damn happy with the ending.

High Point.
THE RETURN OF TODD AND VIOLA! Radiohead epigraph .Map at the beginning- I find their always full of promise and adventure. Ridiculously amazing writing, as per. The Return- WOW. The settlers. Sympathy for the devil (again!). Twistie More...

10 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Tara rated it:

I just finished my second-most hotly anticipated book of the year behind Mockingjay. Patrick Ness' amazing series is so hard to talk about. It's about war. It's about becoming a man (or a woman). It's about rolling the hard six. It's about us v. them. It's about choosing the people you love over the Greater Good. It's about being smarter and wronger. Those are a lot of BSG allusions, becasuse this book, and this whole Chaos Walking series (this is third and final book in the trilogy) asks many o More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Sam rated it:

I have been hesitant to put pen to paper ever since I put down Monster of Men by Patrick Ness. This is Todd and Viola’s story begun in Knife of Never letting Go and continued in Ask and the Answer. I have been reluctant because I am stunned by the writing, the incredible relentlessness of the battle between man and the Spackle, driven on by the malevolent President Prentiss and the rest of the inhabitants of this remote colony.
There are no words to describe this third novel i More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Erika rated it:

I'm not sure how to review this one...

Awesome, awesome… Amazing awesomeness! Yes, this is it…

I feel kinda sad it ended I must say…

I'm gonna start by saying the things I didn't like throughout the whole series, this review contains spoilers of the knife of never letting go and the ask and the answer, so if you haven't read those yet, I suggest you to stop reading now. By now my review her is free of spoilers for this last book.

Ok, so what I didn' More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2012

Cinnamon rated it:

This review may also be found on A Thousand Little Pages.

Ah. Ma. Zing.

It is not often that books induce episodes of hysterical fits and render me speechless at the end. I will have to congratulate Patrick Ness on achieving that. This trilogy has been one helluva ride, and I enjoyed every single moment of it.

AJSLKDFMVILJMOIJAISODNF (Please wait as my brain restarts)

The world that Ness created is real, the character's emotions are raw. Yes, the entir More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 20, 2011

Amanda rated it:

What an ending! The events that happened were just - I never saw them coming! And I'm so sad it's over. It's feels like when your favourite TV show ends and you know you're still going to be thinking about it for years to come and wish that you could experience it all again for the first time. Things moved a bit slower in this one for a little while but it was completely necessary to really put you in the mindset of the narrators. The major scenes were amazingly described, painting a vivid pictu More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

★ Jess rated it:

Im not even going to try describing this book.
All I can say is I am speechless.
Quite literally.
This book was absolutely mind-blowing, and a better-then-terrific end to my favorite trilogy of all time.
I loved the stunning characters, I loved the unique plot, I loved the perfect ending climax, the memorable scenes through out this whole series, the brilliant way Ness wrote, and the cliff-hanging, yet satisfying end to each book.

FAVORITE CHARACTERS: All of More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Monica rated it:

Whew, what an incredible ride.

It took me a while to read this only because it is so so so intense and my life when I began it was also in an intense phase. I'd come home from an emotionally and physically exhausting day at school and found a few chapters of MONSTERS OF MEN was all I could manage. But school is now done and life is far more relaxed and today I was able to spend a couple of hours in the world of this magnificent book. And I finished it --- feeling completely spent a More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Donalyn rated it:

I ordered a copy of Monsters of Men from the UK because I couldn't bear waiting for it to come out 4 months from now in the US. This final installment in the Chaos Walking series includes everything that made the first two books riveting: Heart-pounding action and suspense interwoven with heart-breaking moments of loss and betrayal. The addition of a new narrator reflects the evolving dimensions in the Noise and shows its power to control, divide, and ultimately connect all life on New World.

10 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

H.J. added it

Holy flipping crap, I have this in my hands right now and cannot read it because I am at work. Of course, the irony is that if I was not at work I wouldn't have it in my hands right now since I work in a bookshop. I asked my manager if I could take the rest of the afternoon off to read this and he laughed. I don't think he realised I wasn't kidding.

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Victoria rated it:

I loved the way this trilogy set itself apart from the beginning; the unique first-person voice, the emotion expressed in sentence fragments and surges, the addition of beautifully fonted, perfectly expressive Noise. And I grew to love the story and its driving characters, Todd and Viola. Two young people who fight through what may be one of the most terribly realistic, frightening, heartbreaking, life-affirming wars ever recorded between pages.

Todd is on one side, bound to the vi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

Emily rated it:

After falling completely in love with the first two books in the Chaos Walking Trilogy, it made perfect sense for me to seek out the final installment asap. And I must admit, my immediate thoughts were mixed. This book doesn't share the fast pace of 'The Knife Of Never Letting Go' and doesn't put as much emphasis on the shock factor like 'The Ask And The Answer'. But it delivered beautifully in a way I could never have imagined.

Firstly, I've never been a huge fan of swapping the narrat More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Milly rated it:

“War makes monsters of men, you once said to me, Todd. Well, so does too much knowledge. Too much knowledge of your fellow man, too much knowledge of his weakness, his pathetic greed and vanity and how laughably easy it is to control him.” – Mayor Prentiss.

Monsters of Men is the culmination of the epic trilogy, Chaos Walking. Patrick Ness did not disappoint me at all in how he ended this series! Monsters of Men was a roller coaster ride from beginning to end with unexpected twists an More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2011

Terri rated it:

(I loved it even more the second time! There were so many things I missed the first time through - even as I was trying to savor it, I couldn't help but turn the pages. I am not one who generally reads a book twice, as I think the reaction to a book is as much about who you are at the time you read it, as the book itself. I like to hold close my initial reactions to a book - or movie for that matter - especially if it is something I really liked!However, I am glad I got the chance to read this b More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Scott rated it:

At some point while I was reading I was struck by an image. Not from this book. From a movie. Or a music video. Or possibly my imagination. But probably not the last one. But maybe the last one. Anyway. In this image, two lovers fly through space toward each other, finally smashing their faces together in a kiss. It is probably tenderer, the kiss, but it all seems so violent and g-forced in my head.
That's what I like about this book. The epic, time and space spanning love, that ends in a p More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Pamela rated it:

MONSTERS OF MEN is the conclusion of Patrick Ness's riveting "Chaos Walking" trilogy about an Earth-like planet recently invaded by humans. The first book (THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO) contains the two best scenes in the series, both concerning the deaths of innocents, and the second book (THE ASK AND THE ANSWER) is the best of the three for its explorations of genocide, terrorism, and political machinations. MONSTERS OF MEN was, for me, the weakest of the books. Its great strength i More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Holly rated it:

War. That is all the Mayor, with a gleam in his eye, can say. Stuck in the middle, all Todd can do is watch Mistress Coyle’s terrorist army boom into New Prentisstown, spy the native Spackle soldiers zigzagging down the hill in front, and accompany Mayor Prentiss as his men march to meet them. Somewhere, the scout ship of incoming settlers will be landing in the middle of Mistress Coyle’s army oblivious to the chaos and Viola, ankles broken, galloping away from it all on her horse Acorn. Badly More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Fence rated it:

The final book in a series can often be a tough one to read and enjoy. On the one hand you want it to end happily ever after for the characters. Especially is you are at all invested in them. But at the same time you also want it to be truthful. By which I mean you don’t want the author to duck the difficult decisions and have some quick get out of jail clause. And I’m happy to say that Ness manages it all, with some brilliant writing along the way.

If you haven’t read the first two b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

marlene rated it:

It took me quite a while to finish this book. But only because of personal stuff going on. And when I sat down to read today, halfway through, i just had to finish it. It took me on an emotional-ride. It made me love the charakters even more. It was exciting, it was surprising, it was heartbreaking, it was sweet, it was scary, it was EPIC! I loved this last book. I loved the last chapters. I loved the whole thing, really.

I have to say that this series is equal to The Hunger Games on m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Ace rated it:

I can't believe that I finished more than half of this book in a day. It is so engaging that I didn't notice how the time passed by, I started reading aroung 6:00 P.M and finished reading at 1:30 A.M, that's why I'm so dizzy right now.

There'll be no peace without war. There must be somebody to end a war, and that somebody maybe also need to sacrifice his/her own life for a better future of his/her people. The conclusion of the series is so heart-breaking and is also a cliff hanger. I More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Ryan rated it:

Lord of the Rings can eff off--this is the trilogy for our times.

We look to fiction for out-sized stories that intensively reflect the world we live in (trying to figure out how to live in the world) and these three books brutally capture the decisions we have to make in a fucked up world where there are no truly ethical choices. We have to make them anyways, live with the consequences, and make more decisions based off the results. And based off our notions of love, of right and wr More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

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