Book Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go


I love the title of this book. Patrick Ness, whom I'd never heard of before reading this book, is a genius. The Knife of Never Letting Go is a captivating read. The premise of this book is that humans find a new world inhabited by creatures they call the Spackle. Apparently, the Spackle infect the newcomers with a disability that the humans call the noise: The thoughts of men (not women) are no longer private and everyone can hear what men are thinking.

In the town of Prentisstown, where the main character Todd grows up. In this town, there are no women left because they were said to have died off due to a Spackle-inspired disease. Todd is knows no other life and he is the youngest surviving male in Prentisstown, so he does not question the history that he has been told. He remain ignorant of these lies and deceptions until he is thrust into the larger world of the planet. He soon finds that he can trust nothing that he knew and that he needs to fight to stay alive because the entire population of Prentisstown is coming after him.

This is a fast read, though it is over 400 pages. I can't wait to read the next book in this series! It's called The Ask and the Answer. Brilliant!