2009 Reading #87: The Knife of Never Letting Go
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
82. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad.
83. The Dakota or Sioux in Minnesota As They Were in 1834 by Samuel W. Pond.
84. The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert.
85. The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Sa by Doreen Rappaport.
86. Count Geiger's Blues by Michael Bishop.
87. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Occasionally I have the experience of reading something and wavering about how I feel about it all the way through, until I finish it and realize I hated it. That was basically my experience of this book. What it is: the story of Todd, a boy on a sparsely colonized planet of religious pilgrims. What's odd about the planet is that men and animals broadcast their thoughts more-or-less uncontrollably, the result--or so Todd is told--of a biological weapon employed by the indigenous alien population, a plague which also killed all the women on the planet. But there is a lot going on that Todd isn't being told, as he learns when he and his dog Manchee (who also "talks") discover something in the swamp that shouldn't be there and are forced to flee into the wider world. There are things to like here. The relationship between Manchee and Todd is great, and is a large part of what gives the book a killer opening. And there is a nicely done unfolding of the truth of what's going on that forces Todd's coming-of-age. But there's a lot of dithering, pace-wise, particularly in the beginning, and an anti-violence message which is clouded by not just the violent acts but the stiflingly violent atmosphere of the book; in many scenes it reads more like an action movie than the story about maturation and rapprochement it's reaching for. Ness offers hope only to continually stamp it out, and--particularly in the book's cliffhanger, just-in-case-you-didn't-realize-it-was-a-trilogy ending--ultimately the book feels almost nihilistic. Yuck.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
82. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad.
83. The Dakota or Sioux in Minnesota As They Were in 1834 by Samuel W. Pond.
84. The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert.
85. The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Sa by Doreen Rappaport.
86. Count Geiger's Blues by Michael Bishop.
87. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Occasionally I have the experience of reading something and wavering about how I feel about it all the way through, until I finish it and realize I hated it. That was basically my experience of this book. What it is: the story of Todd, a boy on a sparsely colonized planet of religious pilgrims. What's odd about the planet is that men and animals broadcast their thoughts more-or-less uncontrollably, the result--or so Todd is told--of a biological weapon employed by the indigenous alien population, a plague which also killed all the women on the planet. But there is a lot going on that Todd isn't being told, as he learns when he and his dog Manchee (who also "talks") discover something in the swamp that shouldn't be there and are forced to flee into the wider world. There are things to like here. The relationship between Manchee and Todd is great, and is a large part of what gives the book a killer opening. And there is a nicely done unfolding of the truth of what's going on that forces Todd's coming-of-age. But there's a lot of dithering, pace-wise, particularly in the beginning, and an anti-violence message which is clouded by not just the violent acts but the stiflingly violent atmosphere of the book; in many scenes it reads more like an action movie than the story about maturation and rapprochement it's reaching for. Ness offers hope only to continually stamp it out, and--particularly in the book's cliffhanger, just-in-case-you-didn't-realize-it-was-a-trilogy ending--ultimately the book feels almost nihilistic. Yuck.