Meghan read and liked Ali's review of The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2):

"If you are like me and have waited patiently since finishing The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking Book 1) and its colossal cliffhanger of an ending then you will not be disappointed with Ness’s sequel. When last we left Todd and Viola they...more If you are like me and have waited patiently since finishing The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking Book 1) and its colossal cliffhanger of an ending then you will not be disappointed with Ness’s sequel. When last we left Todd and Viola they had made it to Haven only to find the town already under the thumb of Mayor Prentiss who they so desperately spent weeks trying to run away from. Viola, badly wounded by gunshot, is taken to a healing house where she chafes against the head healer, Mistress Coyle. Todd is held captive by Mayor, now self-appointed President, Prentiss and made to work with his son Davy Prentiss, Jr. The Mayor manipulates Todd by using Viola as bait, causing Todd to do unthinkable things while working with the Spackle. Throughout their time apart both Todd and Viola think constantly about the other, but their plans to rescue each other are always thwarted by either the Mayor or Mistress Coyle. Eventually, Todd and Viola find themselves on different sides of the conflict, both unwillingly and willingly.

An unlikely friendship springs up between Davy and Todd while Viola becomes attached to a boy named Lee who is part of The Answer. While it’s obvious Lee has feelings for Viola, her own feelings are too heavily enmeshed in the idea of saving Todd to understand. The entire book is about Todd and Viola finding each other, saving each other, so much so that they are almost obsessed with each other, but yet their final meeting is diluted by doubts and a single touch of their hands. While the thought of Viola gives Todd a power over his Noise he thought only the Mayor had, it was unbearable not to get at least one kiss for all the waiting. But alas, I can always hope for a kiss in the next book.

Though the reader is invested in seeing both Todd and Viola safely away from wicked Mayor Prentiss, the true theme of the story is how war can make even good people do bad things. Mistress Coyle, whose main concern as a healer should be saving lives, takes her uprising, The Answer, to the extreme by blowing up bomb after bomb after bomb in order to “save” her town from the Mayor. But her idea of saving comes at the price of many deaths. Again there’s a pretty hefty cliffhanger at the end of the book, making us all wait until next to learn the fates of Todd and Viola and the others of New World. (less) "

Meghan read and liked brian's review of The Pearl:

"goodreads david writes this: I'm convinced that the general besmirchers of Steinbeck are fucktards, asswads, and vibrating pustules.

it's nice as a reader (bad, i guess, as a reviewer) when a writer achieves can-do-no-wrong status. readin...more goodreads david writes this: I'm convinced that the general besmirchers of Steinbeck are fucktards, asswads, and vibrating pustules.

it's nice as a reader (bad, i guess, as a reviewer) when a writer achieves can-do-no-wrong status. reading steinbeck i feel less distance between the writer -> his words -> myself than with nearly any other writer. his prose stylings can't touch his contemporaries, his structure and pacing can be sloppy, he's sentimental, preachy, overly didactic, and his themes arrive with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the kneecaps.

but who gives a shit? i'm not grading a paper. he gets an A+ and a gold star at the top of his paper for cannery row, possibly the most complete and interesting fictional world i've encountered; travels with charley, my all-time favorite travelogue; and grapes of wrath, a flawed but incredibly moving masterpiece.

and the pearl... a clumsy and sweet fable, overwrought and obvious -- definitely a lesser work. but it's steinbeck writing and he's filled with such love for mankind, wonder at nature, and joy at the strange eccentric and eclectic that, even if upon reading the remainder of his writings i find the literary equivalent of sex with goodreads david... steinbeck remains untouchable. (less) "