The one detraction I had about the first book was I thought the action scenes – especially the one at the end – were not very good. I was deeply engaged with The Knife of Never Letting Go, and cried a few times. The thoughts (the Noise) of the animals added some needed lightness (most of the time).

It was interesting to see how the different communities dealt with the fact that the men’s thoughts could be heard but not the women’s. Even while facing terrible and incredibly sad situations, Todd and Viola’s journey unveils some great world-building on Ness’ part. As both characters have never explored this world before, it is not only a novel of the chase but also a novel of discovery. The book of “flight”, The Knife of Never Letting Go, is certainly unrelenting suspense as Todd and Viola flee the dangers of Todd’s village toward the promise of a town called Haven. I had read in a review of The Ask and the Answer (from the blog, Estella’s Revenge) that the three overarching themes for the books were: flight, tyranny and war. Another thing you may want to know up-front: though I was a fan of the first book, I was disappointed overall with the trilogy. I had kept myself very spoiler-free about the plot and so I had a vague idea that it was a YA dystopian novel that started with a boy who lived in a town full of men who could hear each other’s thoughts.įor those who haven’t read the books, the following review – which covers all three books – will have some spoilers, so you may want to keep away. This is what I had heard about the Chaos Walking trilogy before I read it: rave reviews general warnings about heartbreaking plot turns and recently when that A to Z meme went around, several people picked The Ask and The Answer as their favorite sequel.

Chaos walking by patrick ness