Review: Chaos Walking trilogy

[amcdaniel_01]

Title: Chaos Walking Trilogy (1- The Knife of Never Letting Go, 2- The Ask and the Answer, 3- Monsters of Men)
Author: Patrick Ness
Rating: 5/5

First of all, may I say how underrated this book is. In fact, I had never even heard of it until I stumbled across it in the expansive shelves of my local library, completely by chance. Though I had never heard of it, I decided to check out the series and start reading and boy, am I glad I did. While I picked this book up with the expectation of an interesting premise carried out through an action packed story, I soon found this book existed in layers so much deeper than that. It was dytopian, meets sci-fi, meets Catcher in the Rye. It puts all other popular young adult series to shame.

The entire concept of hearing another's thoughts hooked right from the start, though I was nervous that it would be cheesily carried out. I was soon proven wrong. The author manages to write about such an obscure premise in an incredibly realistic way that almost made me feel as if I were there. The writing often made it feel as if I were there. Action scenes were this way in particular. The choppy style gave it a panicked feel yet it still sounded eloquent if such a combination is even possible.

And perhaps the best character development that I have ever read. In the first book, we see Todd as an ignorant young boy on the verge of becoming a "man." Truth be told, I hated Todd in the beginning. He was rude, arrogant, and acted downright terribly toward his dog. Then as the novel progressed, I watched as Todd changed from such an annoying boy to a loyal, selfless man, whom I could easily respect. As for Viola, we see change in her as well. Unlike so many young adult novels today, she didn't begin with any sort of snarky or rebellious attitude. That came later. She, too, grew into herself, from a terrified young girl to a strong woman. And these are only the two main characters. There are the villains (who make you wonder whether they are really villains at all at certain points of the novel), minor side characters (each with their own deeply rich personality), and even the animals (you'd never think the thoughts of animals could seem so realistic).

Overall, this book was an incredible series of novels I would recommend to anyone of a mature age (I only say mature because some of the violence may be a bit much for younger readers). I can only shake my head when I see all the attention 50 Shades of Gray gets in comparison to how little this series gets, despite the fact that this easily the best young adult fantasy series I have ever read. It made me laugh out loud then reduced me to tears the very next page. It left me both in fear of the cruelty and sadism in people and awe in human kind's capacity for forgiveness and relentless drive. And more than anything, it allowed me to see the ghost of myself and who I could hope to be in the wonderfully constructed characters. Well done on creating such a terrifyingly beautiful story, Patrick Ness, well done.

[Anxious Educator]

Yusssss. Such a good review. Is the review for the whole series or just the first book?

A rather unfortunate thing happened as I read through the Chaos Walking Series. I loved The Knife of Never Letting Go. Then the next two books dragged on a bit to the point that I just needed it to be over. Now, when I think back to my experience reading the series, I have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. But this review made me remember the many, many fantastic attributes of the entire series. Thank you.

I want to second the excellent character development. Since it's been a while since I read the series, something that continues to stick out the most is the Mayor's character and how completely well-written and mysterious he was. (I don't want to go into specifics to avoid spoilers.) Let's just say that I was guessing about his motives and his goodness/evilness almost the entire time. Just when I thought he was 100% bad, I would question myself.

I listened to the audiobooks rather than reading the actual books, and I was really pleased with them. The voices/thoughts of the men translated well from text to audio. It was actually really cool. The narrator/Todd's voice was excellently done, as was Viola's in the 2nd and 3rd book.

[gali]

I agree. I have read and loved the series.

[Hannah47123]

I completely agree with some people's view on how the first book was incredible and amazing and the second and third I just wanted to get through an finish! I loved the first book though and it completely reduced me to tears at the end especially when Manchee died. It was a great book and I loved to but it saddens me about the last two of the serious.