Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Monsters of Men

Author: Patrick Ness

Pages [hardcover]: 603

Memorable Quote:
To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility

Favorite Characters:
Viola, Todd, & Lee

The third book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy!
Book 1: The Knife of Never Letting Go 
Book 2: The Ask and the Answer

Summary:

“War,” says the Mayor. “At last.” Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? How can there ever be peace when they’re so hopelessly outnumbered? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await? But then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge – the electrifying finale to the award-winning “Chaos Walking” trilogy, Monsters of Men is a heart-stopping novel about power, survival, and the devastating realities of war.

Review

 This thrilling conclusion to the Chaos Walking Trilogy is nonstop action and suspense. I could barely put it down, and then only when I absolutely needed to. I’ll try to review this without giving anything away from this book, or the previous books.

I love how it’s told from all sides of the conflict, short snippets of several main character’s perspectives. I breezed through the book because one character’s section would end on a cliff-hanger, then it would switch abruptly to another and leave me with another cliff-hanger when the perspective moved back to the first character! The way the story is told reflects the confusion the characters are feeling-things are happening so quickly, it’s almost impossible to digest one development before another major plot-bomb is dropped on the reader.

I also love that throughout this entire series, not one character has been essentially ‘perfect’. Everyone has their flaws and weaknesses, diferrent hopes and dreams. Their actions show this, and I love how a character’s personally isn’t twisted to suit the plot-the plot turns because of the character. I often find it annoying when a character suddenly changes just because it’s not convenient for them to act that way anymore. These books take that thought and turn it upside-down.

I think this is one of those books that will stay with me for a long, long time. Even though it’s set in the future, on another planet, with an alien species, it still focuses on issues most prevalent today. War, love, hate, desire, and hope all reign free. Dictators, revolutionaries, and every leader in between is featured.

One last thing I’m fanatic about is the writing style. Not only how the Noise is portrayed, but the abrupt, cut off sentences that nearly replicate human thought and really conveyed the emotions of the characters.

I love the Chaos Walking Trilogy! Of course I’m sad that it’s all over…but then I can always go back and reread it! Everyone should definitely give this trilogy a chance. I give Monsters of Men 5/5 stars.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness

Pages [hardcover]: 479

Available now!

Opening Lines: The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.

Memorable Quote:
You can’t say everything, so you don’t say nothing.

Favorite Characters:
Manchee & Ben

Summary:

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…

Review:

This is one of those books where you sit back and think, “Wow. I’m never read anything like this.” And then perhaps, “Why aren’t more books written like this one?!”

At least, I did.

The Knife of Never Letting Go, besides having an awesome title, has an amazing main character, Todd. He lives on New World and his parents were some of the first settlers there. He has the Noise, a germ that projects a man’s thoughts to the world and kills every woman it touches. Todd is the youngest boy in Prentisstown, with only a month until he becomes a man. But his world soon turns upside down as he has to face the fact that everything he has ever been told is a lie.

I absolutely adore the writing style used in this book. Todd’s thoughts are scattered and wild. His education has been poor at best, so he barely knows how to read. One of my favorite sentences from the book is: “The plans are still being planned, the preparayshuns prepared, it will be a party, I guess, tho I’m starting to get some strange pictures about it, all dark and too bright at the same time, but nevertheless I will become a man and picking apples in the swamp is not a job for a man or even an almost-man.” ‘Preparayshuns’ is spelled just how Todd hears it and thinks it should be spelled. I like how the Noise is always in bold or italicized to add extra emphasis.

Manchee, Todd’s faithful dog, can speak. Actually, every animal can speak in some sort of way. Sheep, squirrels, crocodiles.

The only negative comment I could make would be that the story is almost repetitive. I don’t want to give anything away by example. I know some readers may hate that, but I personally didn’t mind it. It added to the mood of desperation, frustration, and suspense.

The ending . . . This is a beauty of an ending, one I never, ever saw coming. It jumped right at me, just as I was wondering how there could possibly be two other books following this one. Now I must get my hands on book two . . .

The Knife of Never Letting Go is a fabulous book that gets 5/5 stars. I very much recommend it.