Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Publisher: Candlewick
Publication Date: September 9, 2008
Hardcover: 496 pages
Where’d I Get It: Library

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown.
But Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending Noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets.
Or are there?
Just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd unexpectedly stumbles upon a spot of complete silence.
Which is impossible.
Prentisstown has been lying to him.
And now he’s going to have to run…

My Thoughts: Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go is one that I’ve been wanting to read for a while, but for one reason or another just never could commit to.  I’m glad I finally did, though.  This book is written from the point of view of young Todd, an almost-man (according to Prentisstown’s law), who is still fairly childlike in his thoughts.  Education is not a huge deal in Prentisstown, and that lack of refinement is evident in the use of dialect by the author.   Several people whose opinions I respect simply did not like this simplistic form of communication and the “dumbed down” language.  I suppose I am just a bit more mellow about that (strange, considering usually I’m a fair bit of a grammar hag).  I just really -got- this book.  Without the dialect, without the simplistic language, without the repetition, it wouldn’t be as obvious that Todd is, at his core, a very simple, honest thinker.  I must admit that I did initially have a bit of trouble getting into the book.  As I said, I’m a bit fickle about grammar, so getting passed the language was hard – but once I got into it, yep, definitely enjoyed the book!

Rating: 8 of 10

Bellaesque Rating: Not really applicable, since Todd isn’t female, but Viola (who is not the protagonist, but is close enough) is most certainly NOT Bellaesque.

I read this book as a part of the Young Adult Dystopian Challenge which can be found over at Bart’s Bookshelf.I was aiming for level 2 in this challenge, but since this is my 5th Dystopian, I’ve happily made it to level 3.  Yay! I’ll also be reading and reviewing the other two books in the Chaos Walking series, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men.