The Knife of Never Letting Go/Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking series, book 1); young adult, science fiction, survival; 479 pages (about 12 hours on CD)

In one month, Todd Hewitt will be 13 years old, and a man. Todd was the last child born in Prentisstown before the Noise germ took hold, killing all the women, and cursing the men (and animals) to broadcast their thoughts loud and clear to anyone within range. There is no silence in Prentisstown, and no secrets. But one day Todd encounters a bubble of silence in the swamp outside town--and at its center is a girl. Faced with a lifetime of lies and the mounting dangers at home, Todd, his dog, and the girl have to flee, but none of them knows what waits for them beyond the boundaries of the town.

I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this book: everyone who's finished it seems to love it, but I've also run into a lot of people who put it down because the main character's dialect was too difficult to read. That's not a problem in the audio book, however, so if you've tried this before and given up, give it another shot. The narrator is excellent, and manages to capture the unique accents perfectly.

As for the plot, this book was amazing. Most of the story is the characters on the run, but they still manage to work in the mysteries of Todd's hometown, as well as the looming threat of things to come. I expected Manchee (Todd's dog, who can communicate with Todd through the Noise) to be annoying, but he was actually spot on (Ness clearly has dogs of his own; he gets their logic just right). Of course, this violated my cardinal rule of reading: never read books with pets in them. That's how I wound up crying in my car at a stoplight, and drawing strange looks from other drivers. The setting is technically science fiction, but the limited technology gives the book more of an historical fiction feeling than true sci-fi.

Despite the characters' young age, I would recommend this to older YA's: the plot is surprisingly dark and bloody, right through to the cliffhanger ending. I'm really glad I had the second volume ready to go when I finished this (also on CD), so I could just keep going with the story.