Let’s recap: Net neutrality’s been repealed, the political climate is exactly the same, the most anticipated releases of the year, other than Infinity War, is a terrible Heathers remake and the Harrison Ford-less Han Solo movie.

By all means, I should start this off ranting about some book I hate.

But am I going to do that?

No.

5 stars.

I’m not going to apologize for that random dose of pessimism because you all know it’s true, don’t deny it, but let’s not stray too far off topic. I’ve done a review on another of Patrick’s books, The Rest of Us Just Live Here.

If anyone actually paid attention to these things, they might be surprised about me giving 5 stars to a different book of his.

Fortunately, no one pays attention which means I get to elaborate.

The first Patrick Ness book I read was A Monster Calls, which was equally amazing and devastating. The story follows a boy named Conor O’Malley whose mother is suffering from cancer.

Leave your judgements at the door.

I picked up The Rest of Us Just Live Here with high hopes, which were obviously crushed. You can check that review if you care enough about my opinion on the matter.

I was hesitant to pick up another book of his, but figured I might as well. I started this thinking it would be a bland, stupid dystopian like almost every other I’ve read.

I loved being wrong.

This book could have so easily been what my preconceived notions said about it. It could have been a bland self-discovery with an unnecessary love interest and a few action scenes to
keep readers from yawning.

But it wasn’t, and I am so, so pleasantly surprised by that.

This book was dark and gritty, not to mention gruesome. By gruesome, I don’t mean Katniss Everdeen vaguely describing a character getting shot, I mean a main character getting his nose ripped clean off his face.

I guess I should put up a warning: This book is violent, it’s gorey, and there’s plenty of swearing!

Even so, it touches on underlying issues such as racism, sexism, and colonization.

The Knife of Never Letting Go is about a boy named Todd Hewitt from a place called Prentisstown, in which the population only consists of men and everyone can hear each other’s thoughts in the form of Noise.

It was a month before Todd’s 13th birthday, the birthday that will officially make him a man, that he and his dog, Manchee, were . . .  sent away, I guess (I don’t want to spoil), and came across a Noiseless girl.

The characters were amazing. I loved them all. Reading through Todd’s head, and how he deals with Noise, is captivating, and never once did I find that he didn’t sound like a twelve year old.

He makes mistakes and is naive but at the same time that makes him endearing.

All of the decisions he makes, whether good or bad (or really bad), match up with his thoughts and the story line.

Viola (Noiseless girl) is great. She’s not there to be “the girl” like so many other female characters I’ve encountered.

She’s in an uncertain predicament and scared, yet still loyal and full of a clarity that keeps her grounded.

Not to mention that their budding relationship is one of the sweetest and most adorable I’ve seen since Mike and Eleven.

The dog, Manchee, is great. Normally I’m apprehensive of talking animals in literature because then I’m expecting the main characters to start spouting Disney songs, but THIS DOG. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

His dialogue is limited to repetition and basic needs rather than conversation, but he leaves such an impression. And this is coming from a cat person.

Now that I’ve covered characters, let me just say that the story is fantastic. It’s one of those action-around-every-corner books where you literally have to force yourself to close it because sleep is unfortunately necessary for survival.

The story and events in it are so unique from most things I’ve read and so well developed and honestly genius. I’m low-key fangirling at this point.

You know that roller coaster feeling of watching a movie you love for the first time?

How one minute you’ll be laughing and the next tearing up and the next gasping because your beloved characters are in mortal peril and what if they die, what if this is it,
oh my God, oh my God, NO, NO, PATRICK WHY, NO, HOW DARE YOU, NO, NOOOOOOOOO–

*cough* Anyway.

I’m writing this as a way to vent because  ironically the day that all of the libraries are closed except Lonestar.

I checked Lonestar, and they didn’t have the second book.

I smothered down all that good ol’ anxiety to call some bookstores which didn’t have the book or the answers I needed.

So, fair warning, if you’re going to pick this up (which you should), get the entire trilogy. Don’t make this mistake or else you’ll be wallowing in misery and despair like me.

It does sort of feel like some elaborate joke that literally all of Houston is hiding this book from me, but whatever, not like I care or anything.

I mean after all, it is just a book and none of the events in it are real or anything.

Cue wailing.

I should  wrap this up before I embarrass myself any further.

Read this book.

If my utter adoration, or pain, hasn’t convinced you then keep in mind that they’re making a movie out of Chaos Walking starring Tom Holland and (blonde!) Daisy Ridley, and you need to be a Tumblr hipster with the liberty to throw that one Belle meme around, scoffing, “I read that before it was a movie, amateurs.”

Anyway, I’m pretty sure Tom said something about how the movie will be completely different from the book, which is effectively giving me a migraine, but who knows.

This has just turned into one gigantic blog post. I’m so sorry. On that note, goodbye!

Hope this was slightly amusing and possibly persuading. Adios, read this book!