Summer Reading #21/Fall Required Reading

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

In the last year, I have learned that it's ok to give up a book if the reader isn't into it by page fifty. If this hadn't been required reading for the upcoming semester, I may have given up long before page fifty. Luckily, at page fifty, this book picked up, and a part of me wanted to read it. I hesitate to say that I liked this book, but it held my interest enough that I was able to finish it

Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown, a settlement on New World, which is suspiciously Earth-like, where there are no women. All the males on New World can hear the thoughts of each other all the time. This is referred to as the Noise. There is something about Todd that is important to the Mayor, and after much argument, Todd leaves Prentisstown with his dog, Manchee.

Not long into his journey, Todd runs into the first female he has ever seen. Her family has died, and she joins Todd on his mission, which is to warn the other New World settlements about Prentisstown. He is unsure why the mayor and his men are hunting him, or why he needs to warn the other settlements. Todd and the girl, Viola, find that they need to get to Haven, the largest of the settlements, because only they are large enough to stand up to the army of Prentisstown.

**Spoiler Alert**
During the course of the whole book, there is a crazy priest out to get Todd. No matter what happens, he doesn't seem to die. He even kidnaps Viola. Even though Todd rescues Viola, he has to make a choice, Viola or Manchee, and Todd chooses Viola. Manchee dies a violent death. Any chance of me liking this book ended with the death of the dog. It made me mad, and I ended up reading the rest of the book just to see if the dog died in vain.

Also, the ending angered me. It angered me enough that there is no way I'll read the rest of this trilogy. The ending came out of left field, and is abrupt. I realize that this is the first book in a trilogy, and there is some expectation that the book will just leave the reader hanging, but usually, there is some kind of closure. Not this one. No closure.