Audiobook Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go Series: Chaos Walking #1 Written by: Patrick Ness Published: September 9, 2008 by Candlewick Press (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too.  With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World?  Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is

I hate so much being a black sheep. Especially in a case like this when I was really looking forward to the book and I know so many people who live this series. And there is nothing technically wrong with this book, it just wasn't for me.

One of the things I did like about this book was the world and setting. I haven't read a ton of Ness' books but the ones that I have read I enjoyed because of the way he played with the tropes, which is exactly what he did here. This wasn't your usual science fiction or your usual dystopian, but it was kind of both at the same time. There were so many interesting and engaging things to the world of New World that I liked. I really enjoyed exploring it and learning more.

I also enjoyed the plot development. This was a book full of action and adventure. There were so many surprises and twists and turns along the way that really kept me on the edge of my seat. I'm such a plot driven ready and I should have loved that about this book. And I did. I did. But a few of the twists were just things that I don't like. Things that are deal breakers for me. Despite really liking it I decided not to finish the series while I was still reading this book. It kind of clouded my feelings of this one and I kind of just wanted it to be over.

But I also don't think I really liked the characters of this book. This is definitely one of those books where many of the characters are not very likable. I usually like unlikable characters but for some reason here it made it hard for me to connect with them. Despite the fact that I do think Todd was an engaging character that it should have been easy to root for, and I did in some ways, I just didn't care what happened to him. I wanted to see him do things, I just didn't mind if they were positive or not. And that's not a very good thing when it comes to an MC. But I wouldn't be entirely honest to say I didn't like any characters because I did really like Manchee. He was amazing. But he was the only characters I really liked.

The one main thing that I did love about this book however was the audio. I decided to listen to the audiobook for this book because I really enjoy the narrator, Nick Poedhl. I'm glad I made that decision because it really worked as an audio. For one thing it's a book where "noise" or being able to hear people's thoughts is a part of the story. That translated really well in the audio format. Plus Nicj did a great job with all the characters and their accents. And it's an exciting and thrilling book which always translates well to audio. If you are interested in the series I would recommend the audio.

This was a good book, I should have liked it. But for very specific, very personal reasons I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. This is such a hard book to review. It wasn't a bad book. I liked a lot of elements. It was an exciting and interesting story, it just wasn't for me. If you want to know specifics hit me up on Twitter because no spoilers.

I give The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness 7.5 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: Borrow. Just because I didn't enjoy this book doesn't mean you won't. I think this is the best example of that. I know a lot of people love this series so I probably would still recommend it, it just wasn't for me.

Have you read The Knife of Never Letting Go? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!