The knife of never letting go

Ness, P. (2008) The knife of never letting go. Boston, MA: Candlewick Press. Noise is all that is heard throughout Prentisstown. When they arrived to the New World, men were able to hear each other’s thoughts. The women of the town all died from the sickness after the war with the Spacks. Todd Hewitt is the last boy in the town and anxiously waiting to turn into a man. One day while in the swamp with his dog Manchee, they stumble in an area of complete silence. They decide to keep it a secret but without thinking, Aaron the town preacher heard his thoughts. This leads the whole town to seek for him and follow him as he is sent away from all that he knows. Ben and Cillian tried to shelter Todd from knowing the truth behind Prentisstown and want to save him from what is to come. Ben leads Todd and Manchee into the swamp while Cillian stays behind to deal with Mayor Prentiss’s son and his army. Todd and Manchee meet Viola Eade along the way and realize that not all women are gone from this New World only in Prentisstown. Todd, Manchee and Viola make a run to see if they can make to Haven ad warn them of Mayor Prentiss and his army. As they make it to Haven, they realize that there is no help and it has been overtaken by Mayor Prentiss. The conflict between the wrong that happened in Prentisstown and Todd Hewitt accepting that he will partake in Mayor Prentiss’s plan is the struggle that Todd has had to deal with throughout the story. The cliffhanger at the end of the book leads you to believe that Todd will not submit to his plans without an ulterior motive. Related series to read would be Chaos Walking Series by Patrick Ness, The Hunger Games series, Ship Breaker #1 by Paolo Bacigalupi, and Ashfall #1 by Mike Mullin.