REVIEW: "Chaos Walking : The Knife of Never Letting Go"

What were you thinking about just now?  Aside from "I wonder what interesting, life-altering insight Squooshed has to offer today?"  

Was it something trivial, like what to eat for dinner or the fact that your inbox desperately needs cleaning out?  Or something more personal, like your latest love interest or the fact that your boss looks kind of like a space monkey?

Imagine if all of your thoughts, trivial and personal alike, could be heard by everyone at every second of the day... and likewise, everyone else's thoughts were just as audible as yours.  And animals, too.  All coalescing in a constant, unfiltered stream of... Noise.  

You would probably be going a little crazy, right? 

Well, good thing crazy makes for an interesting story - or at least this is the case in The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, the first book in his Chaos Walking series.

This is one of those books that really caters to the imagination.  The Noise that I referred to earlier is what Todd, the protagonist, has to endure on a daily basis.  He lives in a place called Prentisstown where all the women have died and all the men have been stricken with this "noise" disease, supposedly brought on by an alien race called the Spackle who have since been wiped out.   (I know, sounds kind of far-fetched, but bear with me).

To give you an idea, this is the way the so-called "Noise" is depicted in the book:

Todd:  Here's what it's like.  Here's what every minute of every day of my stupid, stinking life in this stupid, stinking town is like.  Never mind plugging yer ears, it don't help at all...

You could imagine it would be pretty hard to keep a secret under these circumstances.  So when Todd and his dog stumble upon a mysterious silence in the swamp, the secret doesn't stay hidden for long.  And, as the title of the series suggests, chaos ensues - ultimately leading to a series of violent, suspenseful, and tragic events that reveal the true history behind Prentisstown and the origins of this "Noise" disease.

It's difficult to go into further details without giving too much of the plot away so I will stick with that rather vague description.  Like many Dystopian young adult novels these days, the story is very original and at times a little dark.  What really stood out for me was the author's clever writing style.  It is written in first-person with a heavy "country" (aka "hick") dialect.  That said, Patrick Ness doesn't waste words on flowery descriptions and poetic ruminations, and most of it is told through action and dialogue, making for a quick read.  Yet, the writing still leaves you thinking on a deeper level than what's on the surface, and oftentimes you get a greater sense of the story by looking beyond what is being said through the main character's thoughts and words.

Other ways I thought the book was clever:

-The title.  I just love it.  I loved it before reading the book and even more now that I know what it actually means.

-The author's portrayal of a talking dog.  Though Manchee is simple-minded, his relationship with Todd brings a lot of depth and color to the story.  Definitely my favorite character.

-The dialect.  Usually I would find the slew of misspellings, double-negatives, and "ain't"s annoying, but in this case it brings a level of genuineness to Todd's character as well as a sense of comedy and endearment.

-Disguised cursing.  Todd curses a lot.  But since this book is for young adults, the cursing is disguised.  Like "That sunuvahoor."  Or like in this sentence towards the beginning of the book:  "You can eff off, too," I say, except I don't say "eff," I say what "eff" stands for.  And then he proceeds to say "eff" throughout the book.

-Noise vs Silence Dichotomy.  One of my favorite scenes is when Todd discovers the source of the silence, which he describes as loud and piercing compared to the constant stream of Noise he's used to.

Though I really liked this book, I do have two complaints to share:

First, the plot is almost too linear and ultimately comes off as one big chase.  Luckily, this is offset by the progression of the characters and their understanding of the world, which takes many unique twists and turns and keeps the story feeling fresh and interesting.

Secondly, there are a few moments where secrets are revealed to the main character but are withheld from the reader.  Of course, all is revealed in the end, but since we are in Todd's head throughout the rest of the story, seeing everything through his eyes and his perspective, it left me feeling kind of cheated and frustrated.  This only happens a couple of times that I can recall.

The movie rights to this book have been sold to Lionsgate Studios (currently producing The Hunger Games movies).  If they do end up making this into a film, I would be curious to see how they portray the Noise without it becoming too distracting (and annoying).  It would definitely get a PG-13 rating as there is a lot of violence in the book (FYI).

Also I should warn you that the ending is very sudden and leaves you hanging...

...much like this review.

oo,