From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

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

Patrick Ness

Why we're reading this: Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never…more
[close] Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

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Oct 21, 2012 🥀 Rose 🥀 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, young-adult, dystopian-speculative-fiction, coming-of-age

I'm going to call this one more of a crossover novel rather a YA novel. There are hardly any parts of this YA other than our young protagonists. This is the story as told through the eyes of Todd Hewitt. A boy on the verge of becoming a man in a town called Prentisstown, on a planet called the new world. This town is unique in it has no women and the men can all hear one another's thoughts which are referred to as the Noise. This began when they arrived to new world years ago. Two things, the no ...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012-books-read, alien-contact, futuristic, series-book, another-planet, ya

I have to admit up front that I'm not the biggest fan of novels where the characters walk and walk and walk and walk and walk. Yes, that means that I didn't really like The Hobbit when I read it in high school and merely tolerated the movie. And now I've lost you, dear review reader, because you loved all that walking (or you pretended to because everyone else pretended to like all that walking). Anyway, I suppose that I should have known that this would be such a novel since the series is entit ...more

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Jan 06, 2010 ☼Bookish in Virginia☼ rated it it was amazing

Talking Points:::

This is an absolutely good read for those who want an intelligent adventure story.

It's set on another planet where the New World turned out not to be the Eden people were expecting. For one thing, soon after they landed they found out there was a virus that made men capable of 'hearing' the emotional thoughts of others -- including other species. For another, the virus allowed animals to speak -- even if it was only the "EAT? EAT?" of crocs in the swamp. Some people went crazy, ...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Ami E. Bowen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: most-engaging-stories, not-to-be-missed-series, favourite-books, favorites

Aspects of it reminded me of Harlan Ellison's "A Boy and his Dog". This is a dystopian worthy enough to call itself that. Although it started out slow and I was about to put it down, I'm glad I didn't and stuck with it. After about chapter four or five it really sucked me in. As much as I enjoyed "The Hunger Games" this book was a thousand time better in my opinion. We have a boy who tells this story, we can tell by his spelling and grammar errors his lack of formal education, who lived on a pla ...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Tom rated it really liked it

Shelves: hard-copy

Picked up this book based on how much I liked Ness's book A Monster Calls.

This story is set on a world where a man's thoughts are broadcast for everyone else to hear. Note that I say "a man's thoughts" because women are evidently exempt from whatever caused this to happen. (Which makes me wonder... animal thoughts are broadcast too, but is that only male animals? This wasn't clarified.) Having your thoughts broadcast is fairly terrifying concept for me, and so makes for an interesting premise. ...more

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