The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Apr 16, 2013 Joanne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

I thought at first that the language in this book would bother me. There are a lot of intentionally misspelled words (spelled phonetically), and lots of "ain't"s. Once I got going though I found the story so intriguing that I was racing through it, managing to finish this almost-500-page book in only 2 days. The only disappointment is that I guessed the explanations for just about everything long before the big "reveals". Still very enjoyable though. ...more

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Dec 22, 2013 Athena Macmillan rated it liked it

This was very interesting. When I started and was a couple of chapters in, I wasn't at all sure that it was particularly my cup of tea, but I figured I would give it a chance. Then all of a sudden I was halfway through the book and it was two in the morning! Somewhere along the line I was sucked in.

This is sci fi, but not in your face sci fi. You're left guessing about certain elements for a while, and you don't really know until you actually know, ya know?

The author does a good job of different ...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Samantha rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really wanted to love this because so many people recommended it to me and said that they loved it. I really love Ness' style of writing, he is so gifted, he makes me feel like I'm right there with Todd and Viola with an army hot on my heels. The language that he uses is realistic without losing the sense of flow. I like the idea of a new world where everyone can hear thoughts, I think that is very cool. I like the species that we meet and the good people are wonderful. The ending was quite ab I really wanted to love this because so many people recommended it to me and said that they loved it. I really love Ness' style of writing, he is so gifted, he makes me feel like I'm right there with Todd and Viola with an army hot on my heels. The language that he uses is realistic without losing the sense of flow. I like the idea of a new world where everyone can hear thoughts, I think that is very cool. I like the species that we meet and the good people are wonderful. The ending was quite abrupt, luckily I was prepared for a total cliffhanger. I like cliffhangers, they bring back some of that excitement we have when we first start a good book.

However, there were a few things that I didn't like. I found Todd to be very whiny, I kept having to remind myself that he was only 12 (or 14 depending on what planet we are on...?) but even still, he just whined about everything. Yes his world is collapsing but come on, I could have done without a lot of that whining, and I don't really think it was relevant to the story or necessary. Another thing was that the constant running, with basically no sleep, no food, and recovering from multiple wounds/sicknesses, was just to unrealistic. I know that when people get adrenaline they can get these crazy bursts of energy or speed, but they seemed to have that the entire book. I kind of found this book depressing, there is this new world with an amazing species like the spackles, and the cow things that say "HERE" and everyone can hear and talk to one another. Then man comes crashing in and tearing the place up and all the evil of the old world just follows them right on over. I think this would have been about 100 pages shorter if we had just killed Crazy Preacher Man and Turd Jr. on the first try. Seriously, if someone was trying to kill me and mine and it came down to me running the rest of my life or them dying, they would have been dead the first time. How many chances does someone like the above get before we just allow them to take over....oh wait that is what happened at the end. ...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Jessie Marie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Originally posted on The Daily Bookmark

3.5 / 5 stars

The Knife of Never Letting Go (TKONLG) was an interesting ride told from the perspective of a sheltered boy on the brink of manhood named Todd. Todd lives in Prentisstown, on New World, presumably the only town left on the whole planet after an alien germ infected them all. All of the sudden, it's as if the world falls over on itself and Todd and his dog Manchee are left to discover what the truth is among the lies he's been told his whole life Originally posted on The Daily Bookmark

3.5 / 5 stars

The Knife of Never Letting Go (TKONLG) was an interesting ride told from the perspective of a sheltered boy on the brink of manhood named Todd. Todd lives in Prentisstown, on New World, presumably the only town left on the whole planet after an alien germ infected them all. All of the sudden, it's as if the world falls over on itself and Todd and his dog Manchee are left to discover what the truth is among the lies he's been told his whole life. They embark on a journey of discovery and self-preservation, along with a girl named Viola. Strange creatures, murderous peoples and never-ending obstacles abound as the trio sets off.

This is a difficult book for me to review. Almost a month after finishing it and I'm still not sure whether I enjoyed it or not. Interesting and intriguing are the best descriptives I have in my arsenal but good or bad? I can't seem to choose.

TKONLG was high-action, fast-paced and gripping from the first pages. It's a long book but I felt compelled to finish. The world-building was astonishingly good and the characters and their amazing, real personalities - despite such obvious unreal abilities such as Noise, etc. - aided the plot in the best of ways. Characters, world building, great story. The trifecta of a great dystopian.

So why am I still so torn up about this one?

There were a few things that got to me with TKONLG.

- Uneducated, illiterate POV. Keeping up with accents and dialects is normally pretty easy for this reader. Canadian, New Orleans, Minnesota, European, Australian, you name it, I can handle it. The voices come alive in my head, making the story that much richer. Either the writing or Todd's natural voice kept me disjointed. The interruptions of the Noise were interesting enough but I struggled to stay interested. I do believe, however, that this would be rectified by an audio version.
- What I like to call the "LOST" effect. TKONLG starts off with lots of questions. Why are there no women in Prentisstown? What is with the Noise? Is Prentisstown really all there is in the entire world? As these were answered, quite a few more took their place. And this was a never-ending battle, one that became cumbersome.
- The Villains. They seemed supernaturally relentless, entirely too vicious and altogether pointless. Two scenes stand out vivid in my mind as the worst, most pointless scenes in anything I've ever read. I won't divulge further but I was offended by the author taking that route. I almost shut the book without intent to try again at that point... (view spoiler)
- Cliffhanger Frustration. It's made staggeringly clear that this is apart of an ongoing trilogy by the sheer cliff diver's ending. This further compounded the LOST effect and I was simultaneously clenching my fists as I realized the pages were drawing to a close. Cliffhangers don't bother me all that much, I enjoy them for the most part. However, cliffhangers with hundreds of questions buzzing in my head are highly frustrating.

Even with all that, however, I can't help but smile at the thought of TKONLG. It is unique, the definition of unique. The characters were great with real, in-depth and layered personalities. I will likely continue the trilogy because of that and I have to have those questions answered, though I'm not rushing to the bookstore to get ahold of it. ...more

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May 09, 2014 Kaitlin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014

A wonderful little read. I've been reading a lot of dystopia lately, and this is some good stuff. I was surprised by the plot twists and found the premise believable.

What got me into this book is the idea of the talking dog. I wasn't disappointed with that aspect of the book - there was enough of it to be charming without disrupting the arc of the story.

I deducted a star for the cliffhanger. It's not OK for a book to end on a cliffhanger. It's OK when some uncertainty is left or a problem isn't ...more

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