The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown. He only has one more month until he becomes a man and then everyone will stop treating him like a boy. One discovery turns his entire world upside down. Todd starts to question if anything he’s ever been told is actually true.

I picked this book up because I’d heard some really great things about it, but I honestly am not really sure what to make of it. It’s an interesting world that’s been created where the reader isn’t sure what’s true and what’s not. You’re not even sure, initially, if this planet is Earth or somewhere else. I spent most of the beginning of the book feeling really confused (and some of my readers might know, I HATE feeling confused in a book). The reader sees the world completely through Todd’s eyes so whatever he doesn’t know, we don’t know. In addition to that, he’s learned how to hide his thoughts from other people–the reader included. Early on, Todd finds out something but pushes it out of his mind before the reader gets a hold of it. I don’t know why, but that was EXTREMELY frustrating to me. I generally like being in the position of knowing more than my protagonist so knowing that he knows something that we don’t know was pretty hard for me.

Another thing was that I never really felt invested in the story all the way. There was plenty of action and suspense throughout, so maybe this was just me, but I would put the book down for a bit and didn’t feel excited to get back to the story. For whatever reason, I did not find myself caring what happened to the characters next. I didn’t care if they ever made it to their destination. I didn’t even care if they made it out alive. It was seriously so strange! My head knew, “This is an exciting book. You should be feeling really excited about getting back to it.” But then my heart said, “Meh.”

Overall, the book was good–great even! I stand by my four star rating. At the same time I’m just not sure if I’m going to continue on with the series.

Overall Rating: 4
Language: Moderate. Some language, a lot of implied language (effing).
Violence: Heavy. A lot of violence throughout, but nothing too explicitly described.
Sexual Content: Mild. Some crude things are implied, but go over the main character’s head.
Smoking/Drinking: None