Ness, P. 2008. The Knife of Never Letting Go. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763676186
2. Summary
Todd Hewitt lives in a town called Prentisstown where there are no women, and residents can hear each other's minds, a phenomenon known as “Noise” made by an alien life force called the Spackle. However, Todd comes across an area in Prentisstown where it is completely silent and is urged to leave town with his dog, Manchee. While leaving Prentisstown, he meets a girl, Viola, the lone survivor of a spaceship crash. Together, they try to run away but encounter Aaron, a preacher who tries to take away Viola. They escape Aaron and Prentisstown and go to Haven, a safe place for them to hide in. Along the journey, however, Todd finds out that the men of Prentisstown were the ones who killed all the women and the Spackle. When they finally arrive at Haven, they realize that the mayor of Prentisstown has already arrived and renamed Haven, as President Prentiss, to “New Prentisstown.”
3. Discussion
When I first began reading this book, I was completely confused about what was happening. I had the most trouble reading this book because I didn’t understand the way the text was written. Some words were purposely misspelled, such as “yer” to signify “yours” or “ah’d” to signify “I’d”. Some text is written in thick black font, which in the beginning I didn’t understand why. Such as on page 20 through 22 when Tod is explaining his everyday life of being able to hear people's mind and there is thick black text scattered all of the pages, with the texts overlapping itself (which I began to realize signified that when text was written this way it was the “noise”). The type of dialect and the unorthodox writing was not my favorite writing style. Before I realized Tod was able to hear Manche's mind, I didn’t understand why Tod was able to understand and talk to Manche. As much as I like science fiction, it took me a couple of chapters to really dive in and enjoy this book for these various reasons.
Todd Hewitt lives in a town called Prentisstown where there are no women, and residents can hear each other's minds, a phenomenon known as “Noise” made by an alien life force called the Spackle. However, Todd comes across an area in Prentisstown where it is completely silent and is urged to leave town with his dog, Manchee. While leaving Prentisstown, he meets a girl, Viola, the lone survivor of a spaceship crash. Together, they try to run away but encounter Aaron, a preacher who tries to take away Viola. They escape Aaron and Prentisstown and go to Haven, a safe place for them to hide in. Along the journey, however, Todd finds out that the men of Prentisstown were the ones who killed all the women and the Spackle. When they finally arrive at Haven, they realize that the mayor of Prentisstown has already arrived and renamed Haven, as President Prentiss, to “New Prentisstown.”
3. Discussion
When I first began reading this book, I was completely confused about what was happening. I had the most trouble reading this book because I didn’t understand the way the text was written. Some words were purposely misspelled, such as “yer” to signify “yours” or “ah’d” to signify “I’d”. Some text is written in thick black font, which in the beginning I didn’t understand why. Such as on page 20 through 22 when Tod is explaining his everyday life of being able to hear people's mind and there is thick black text scattered all of the pages, with the texts overlapping itself (which I began to realize signified that when text was written this way it was the “noise”). The type of dialect and the unorthodox writing was not my favorite writing style. Before I realized Tod was able to hear Manche's mind, I didn’t understand why Tod was able to understand and talk to Manche. As much as I like science fiction, it took me a couple of chapters to really dive in and enjoy this book for these various reasons.
When I reached chapter 13 in our textbook, I saw the video discussing science fiction and the various subcategories that are found in this subgenre. The video helped me understand the book because I was finally able to realize what subgenre The Knife of Never Letting Go fell under (I struggle with knowing what subgenre a fiction book belongs to). The video in our textbook described The Knife of Never Letting Go as part of the “robots/androids and cyborgs/artificial intelligence” subcategory because of the ability of being able to hear not only people’s minds but also animal minds (which is described as noise in the book). Along with this, the story is set in an alien world where only male humans live (there are no women in sight).
Some language used may not be suitable for the younger readers, but I truly believe that the middle school/high school-level readers would enjoy this book.
4. Connections
The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy, with The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men following. Because I struggled with reading this first book in the trilogy, I am unsure if I will be reading the following two; however, I am curious to find out what happens to Mayor Prentiss when he becomes President Prentiss of the New Prentisstown. Apart from the story itself, an appealing aspect of the novel is that a movie is being planned to be released in January 2021, titled Chaos Walking, so I think that most readers of The Knife of Never Letting Go will consider reading the next two novels.
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