The knife of never letting go
by Patrick Ness
Ness, P. (2008). The knife of never letting go. London, United Kingdom: Walker.
The knife of never letting go is, simply, one of the most astonishing books I have ever read. A science fantasy for young readers and the first of a trilogy, it challenges what we think young readers can cope with, and defies boundaries by challenging and winning over adult readers.
The story is set on another planet at a point in our future. A group of explorers had arrived to what they thought would be a new paradise, but everything has gone wrong. There has been a war with the planet’s indigenous species (the Spackle), who have released a germ known as Noise. This has killed all the women, and made the thoughts of all the men audible to all. When the book opens, the main character, Todd, is the only boy left in a dying town of desperate, mostly mad, often dangerous men, whose thoughts surround him at all times.
Within the first chapter, Todd finds a place of silence in the relentless Noise. At that point, the breakneck pace of the book starts up and Todd is hurtled along a journey where what he thinks he knows is constantly overturned, and he comes to see his world as an increasingly dangerous and unreliable place. He has to find out what this world really is, and what his place in it might be. At the same time, he has to come to terms with becoming a man (his thirteenth birthday is in a month’s time), and what this might mean for him.
Todd is a singular hero, often for his lack of heroism. He doubts himself and those around him, he is not sure of his goal, and he often makes mistakes, sometimes with terrible consequences. Yet his search for understanding, and his frantic journey towards the truth are highly compelling, and his emotional growth is believable and meaningful.
This is a book of tremendous pace and depth, that can be read as a simple adventure story or with an appreciation of the deeper themes. The densely-packed narrative invites repeated readings, and the characters and context resonate long after the book is finished.