The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Jan 12, 2013 Gail rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fiction, sci-fi, dystopian

'The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.' So begins this unusual and absorbing novel.

Todd Hewitt lives in a community where there are no women. He is the last boy in a community of men, and when he turns 13, he will officially be a man too. It is also a community full of 'Noise' - where everyone hears everyone's thoughts, and many go mad as a result of the information overload and the invasion of privacy. Todd is told about the history 'The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.' So begins this unusual and absorbing novel.

Todd Hewitt lives in a community where there are no women. He is the last boy in a community of men, and when he turns 13, he will officially be a man too. It is also a community full of 'Noise' - where everyone hears everyone's thoughts, and many go mad as a result of the information overload and the invasion of privacy. Todd is told about the history of his community, Prentisstown, but as his 13th birthday approaches, and he and his dog Manchee have to run away to escape being killed, he starts to learn that all he's been told is untrue.

I found this a brilliant novel on so many levels: as well as being an entertaining and original story, the novel explores the effects of a world where people read each other's thoughts, and also explores how people come to believe certain things, develop certain prejudices, and form hatred of certain groups. Todd's combination of toughness and innocence makes him a memorable character, and also contrasts with the corruption around him. He learns that moral choices can be incredibly complex, rather than a simple, black and white matter of right or wrong.

The pacing of the novel seemed a bit unusual to me, but maybe that is because I'm not used to series. I'm more used to novels that reach a climax near the end, whereas this novel reaches climaxes many times, and so doesn't really seem to have a beginning, middle and end. The ending isn't an ending at all - it is a cliff hanger, to be continued in the next novel in the trilogy. So there was no sense of having finished a novel. Rather, the novel seemed like a huge big unstructured thing, with lots of fascinating details and ethical issues and character development and plot twists, but not much of an overall sense of coherence.

To indicate Todd's lack of education and literacy, some of the words are spelt incorrectly. For instance, with words that end with 'sion' or 'tion', he will write 'shun' - 'preparayshun', 'stayshun', 'populayshun', 'affecshun', 'corrupshun'. However, not 'fission' - this is spelt correctly, maybe because 'fishun' would be confusing for readers to guess what it meant! And he avoids the issue completely with the word 'question' - I imagine he'd have spelt it 'questchun', but he avoids this by simply never using the word. Instead he says 'asking' to mean 'question'.

Something I found a bit confusing at first was the American slang and dialect, and the very American theme of settlers - considering this is a British novel. But a bit of googling informs me that the author is actually an American who moved to the UK, and who holds dual citizenship, so that makes sense now.

I definitely want to read the rest of the trilogy at some point. ...more

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Sep 19, 2009 Hirondelle (not getting notifications) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, young-adult-and-middle-grade

I love a book with ambition, particularly sf-ambition. But halfway through the ambition was overcome by pretentiousness. The style *is* pretentious, but it´s not just that, some plot reveals end up being disappointingly mundane, the story is just vague. The ending again is ambitious, but by then I was no longer relating.

BTW, Mr Ness, the canonical sf-nal pick of the choice on page 394-395 is the other one. Duh.

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Mar 23, 2011 Maree rated it liked it

I thought it was charming in a county-hick kind of way, and the portrayal of Noise is startling and effective. I kept thinking throughout the book what I would do if I had to deal with hiding my true thoughts or keeping them quiet in my mind. I don't think I'd be able to do it! But then again, I'm a girl, so I wouldn't have to deal with it (yay!).

The story was a little slow and rambling, much like Todd and Viola (and Manchee)'s pace, but it picked up at the end. It was a kind of drudgery reading ...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Meran rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, novels, dogs, fiction, ya

In a world where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts, even the minds of the animals, Todd finds an impossible secret: Quiet, a hole in the Noises.

Now, this world of Todd's, has no women: the germ the Spackles let loose when they all died killed people, but definitely all the women; as a result, it gave everyone Noise, which is thought, maybe more like intention, or mind busyness, things you puzzle over or worry over, emotion of any kind. (Funniest line: What do sheep say? "SHEEP!")

SO, Qui ...more

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Jun 08, 2011 andrea rated it really liked it

so so good! i've been meaning to read this book for a few years now so i don't know what took me so long to get to it.. but wow. the writing was great, todd's voice so strong, and the whole story such a combination of totally unexpected and tyipcal dystopian coming-of-age story. and oh the characters! i never liked a dog in a book as much as i liked manchee. (view spoiler) ...more

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Feb 03, 2010 Redag rated it liked it

Widely praised on blogs I find influential. Disappointing and unresolved in my experience. Not bad in any sense, but the potential I was told to expect really wasn't there. ...more

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May 09, 2014 Kurt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Never ever have I read a YA novel that is so brutal and frustrating. But not because it lacks. Because it is the most adult story imaginable told through the eyes of two teenagers, both of whom are so realistically written that it by turns makes you scream at their mistakes and want to hug and comfort them. But never fear! The novel moves along, the writing style is unique, the world created original, and the ending both completely suspenseful and sufficiently cathartic to warrant pursuit of the ...more

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Aug 17, 2009 Danielle The Book Huntress marked it as to-read

Shelves: fantasy, owned-copy, young-adult

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Jan 14, 2010 Peregrine marked it as to-read

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Feb 24, 2010 Carolyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, read-ya_16-and-up, science-fiction_colonization, 2010-read

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Jul 28, 2010 Jed rated it really liked it

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Aug 15, 2010 Meg rated it really liked it

Shelves: setting-worldbuilding, 21st-century, style-voicey, literature-young-adult, character-dogs, subgenre-dystopian, literature-of-britain, style-distinctive

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Dec 30, 2010 Regina rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, only-listeneed-to, dystopia, listened-to-audio-only, favorites, audio-also-listened-to, first-in-series, fantasy, science-fiction, award-winner

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