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Book Review: The Knife Of Never Letting Go

THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO by Patrick Ness
5 Stars 
Verdict: If you can adjust to the style, this is the book of never putting down. 


At first, I didn’t like this book at all. I struggled with the unconventional spelling, I found the voice a disconnected ramble, and nothing seemed to happen in the first four chapters.

Then, all of a sudden, I could barely put it down. The voice and spelling worked. The plot took off, with poor Todd running for his life almost continuously from start to finish.

The mystery of what happens when the boys become men is strung out for the whole book. Ness sets up ample opportunities for us to learn more, and then twists them around so that I ended up with a growing number of questions.

The lack of answers irritated me, yet I kept reading. It tore out my heart, yet just like Todd I kept going. This book can only be described as emotional self harm.

I’m not recommending this book to all readers. It’s a book that will get your emotions going, and will probably annoy you in places. You’ll probably cry at some point. It’s not all fun and games for poor Todd.

I also wasn’t keen on how many times the same thing kept happening. Even when the person was slightly different, the book was a little repetitive in places. That’s really my only quibble with it.

Prepare for heartache. Prepare for plot repetition. Prepare for a cliff hanger ending. You’ll probably need to prepare to adjust to the style too, but once you get going, prepare to read this book in every spare minute you can find.

Source: Bought it.

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