The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1) in read with Marines

Aug 13, 2012 Samantha rated it it was ok

Edit: I originally rated this book 2.5 stars, but on further consideration, it is more of a 1.5-2 star book for me.

The writing and themes explored in this book are excellent. The writing style is unique and part of the world building in a lot of ways. I found the actual plot, particularly the "twists", as well as the characters, especially the villains, to be lacking. A predictable plot and villains who are evil for the sake of being evil can really kill a story for me and that's what happened h ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Mari rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016, favorites-of-all-time, 2019, 2023, young-adult, 2012, favorite-reads-of-2012

Below are all my thoughts on this book as I've reread it through the years. In a nutshell, this is a deliberate, heart-wrenching coming of age story that isn't perfect, but doesn't get enough appreciation for it's strong voice, interesting premise, flawed but relateable characters and wonderful writing.

If you want to hear me mostly defend my love of this book to my friends, check out this episode of Snark Squad Pod: The Knife of Never Letter Go.

[June 26, 2019] And marking again for reread.

I ma ...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Samantha Ania rated it really liked it

Well. Well. This book ate my heart. And then that ending. If I'm being vague I learned it from this book. ...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Velma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2016-reads, sci-fi, ya, apocalyptic-dystopian-specfic, library-comma-support-your-local

Big-question themes (religious extremism, the nature of violence, gender roles, group-think and mob rule, etc.) wrapped in a compelling, speed racer-paced, post-apocalyse, off-Earth setting, effing roller coaster of a page turner. Loses a big fat star for ending abruptly on a cliff hangar note as if it is a TV series season finale. PS - a note about the language: if you require standard English in your fiction and don't appreciate creative license in how dialogue is rendered, DON'T READ THIS BOO ...more

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May 03, 2012 Jena Jenkins rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, dystopian

I loved the premise of this dystopian/sci-fi/coming-of-age novel: Todd Hewitt is a settler in a small town on a new planet that is much like Earth except that everyone can hear the thoughts of everyone else, and animals, all the time. The author's note explains that he wanted to explore the idea of our culture of information overload and take it to an extreme. In some ways, I think he succeeds. The story is very fast paced and compelling with many twists as we find out that not much about the hi ...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Stephanie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-or-futuristic, lib-book-why-not, dystopia-etc, drama, scandalous, guys-with-messy-hair, boy-pov, made-me-cry, ya-strong-language

Honestly, this book review needs gifs to illustrate because, throughout the book, all I could think was MY FEELINGS.

First couple chapters, I meet Todd and his weird, weird life - where people can see your SECRETS because they read your MIND. ALL THE TIME. CAPITAL LETTERS.

Then CRAZY THINGS start happening. And we get involved with Aaron and meet THE GIRL.

And then we just start running for our lives and start learning a lot more about this ridiculous, weird world I've gotten thrown into.

And we ...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-reads

Man, this book was a downer. There were several times when I thought I wouldn't be able to finish reading it, because my soul couldn't handle it. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good! It was really, really good, actually.

Todd is a boy who is going to be a man soon (on his thirteenth birthday), and he lives in a world where everyone's thoughts can be heard by everyone else. Not long before his birthday, his adoptive parents send him away with no explanation, and he has to survive running away fro Man, this book was a downer. There were several times when I thought I wouldn't be able to finish reading it, because my soul couldn't handle it. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good! It was really, really good, actually.

Todd is a boy who is going to be a man soon (on his thirteenth birthday), and he lives in a world where everyone's thoughts can be heard by everyone else. Not long before his birthday, his adoptive parents send him away with no explanation, and he has to survive running away from an army who wants him dead without knowing why.

At first, I thought I would never be able to get used to Todd's voice. It was kind of difficult to read, and I was uncomfortable with it. But after 10-15% of the book, it felt natural and by the end of the book, I ended up loving it.

There were just a few problems I had with some small-ish things. I hate when information is kept from being revealed by conveniently timed interruptions. There were way too many moments of, "Let me tell you this secret! Oh wait, someone's coming..." That always feels like a cop out for information. There were also a few things that Todd knew from the very beginning of the book that the audience wasn't told until the end, and that annoyed me, too. I think that by the time the information was revealed, the reader could have figured out a good bit of it on their own so it was especially annoying.

We also never get a solid reason as to why the Mayor was so EEEVVVVIIIILLL. Even after hearing all of the explanations, I never understood why Todd, in particular, was so damn important to him. Why was he worth all that fuss?

I'm not sure how I feel about the cliff hanger ending. If I didn't already have the second book ready to read, I would probably be a lot angrier about it than I am. I like a book series that has a clear ending for each book.

Besides those few small things, the rest was great. The pacing of this book was incredible. Every time I thought we might be approaching some boring territory, something new and big happened. We basically never got a break in the action, even when you thought you might be close to one. This also means that your anxiety never, ever gets a break during reading.

Manchee. Oh, Manchee. (view spoiler)

The last big plus I want to say about this book lies in its unpredictability. YA literature has a huge problem with being so damn predictable all the time. They leave "hints" that are glaringly obvious, and it makes reading them really suck sometimes. This book does not do that at all. I never knew what was coming next, and it made the read incredibly exciting.

Would HIGHLY recommend. ...more

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Dec 24, 2016 Charlie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, own

I don't know if I have words yet to explain how I feel about this book.

One of the first things that I noticed about it was the way it was written and the pacing. I understand this is a kind of hit or miss with people but I really enjoyed how the Noise and the characters speech translated in the page. I was a unique and beautiful way to characterize a society and its different groups.
I half read, half listened to the audiobook and I can't recommend the narration enough! It did such a great job I don't know if I have words yet to explain how I feel about this book.

One of the first things that I noticed about it was the way it was written and the pacing. I understand this is a kind of hit or miss with people but I really enjoyed how the Noise and the characters speech translated in the page. I was a unique and beautiful way to characterize a society and its different groups.
I half read, half listened to the audiobook and I can't recommend the narration enough! It did such a great job with the pacing and the accents! It was wonderful! Definitely one of the best audiobooks I've ever read.
I though the world was really interesting, though I feel like we've only just scratched the surface and there's still a lot to learn. I find interesting how the different settlements kind of have their on way of doing things and I want to find out more.
Now, the plot... It was soo fast paced, it always felt that I was in as much of a hurry as the characters and I attribute that to the way it was written. There were barely any slow parts to catch your breath because things just kept on happening.

(view spoiler)

I've heard some people say that they thought the villains didn't have much motivation other than being bad, and while I can see that I don't know if they actually are that way or we just haven't been given enough information about their true motives. We were kept in the dark as much as Todd so maybe we'll find out later more about these characters.
(view spoiler)

I'll definitely keep reading the series because I do find it really interesting and I want to know what happens next for Todd and Vi, even though I know it's going to be as heartbreaking and emotionally exhausting as it has been so far. I want to know more about Vi and where she comes from and the new settlers. And most of all, I want to know how they're going to get out of this, because I honestly don't know.
I'd recommend this if you like dystopian. I know the dystopian trend has been slowing down recently but this was one of the first ones, and it's good to keep that in mind while you're reading it. It does have kind of a throwback feel to it.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Dec 03, 2014 Beck rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: want-to-reread

4 stars- audiobook version. I really enjoyed some aspects of this book and it was a good start to the series. I thought the style of the writing was interesting and worked well with the setting. I'm still not sure what genre this is and some parts of this book I still don't really get- a lot of the explanations for things didn't really make sense to me and it seemed like people's motivations for doing things a lot of the time was "well they're kinda crazy", so that could have been done better in ...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Betty F rated it liked it

Finished this on the train earlier and it's such a cliffhanger that I was like "Wow, must read next one!" But the whole time, I was like ehh, not that into it but still intrigued as to why there was no women (the reason why is crazy) and of course the dynamic of Todd and Viola and how they aren't a love story (thank Lord J!) It was also wonderful to see Todd's progression and how he went from being so close-minded to learning more about the world and not letting the Noise and the silence define ...more

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