THE KNIFE

OF NEVER

LETTING GO

By patrick ness

Sometimes the Noise in Prentisstown on New World is overwhelming, though most every man has learned to deal with it somehow. There's little privacy because everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts--their Noise. Prentisstown has only men in it. All the women died long ago. And Todd Hewitt is the youngest of the children in town. In one month he will turn 13 and become the last boy to reach manhood. Until then, he's lonely. He does have his dog Manchee to talk to, though dogs don't have much to say back. But one day, down in the swamp, Todd hears a hole in the Noise, a silence that is deafening, and he finds a girl, a terrified girl, hiding from Aaron, the preacher man in town. Todd has long suspected Aaron is crazy, and when he hears Aaron's noise about the quiet, he knows for sure.

Ben and Cillian, Todd's guardians tell Todd to run. They know the town's secrets, the secrets that every boy learns when he becomes a man. They know Todd Hewitt must escape, even if he doesn't understand why. So he and Manchee run, and the silent girl runs with them. They are relentlessly pursued by Aaron, and then by the army formed of all the men in the town. They head for the legendary town of Haven, the first settlement on New World, and the largest city. Over and over they are caught and hurt and endangered, and over and over they escape to run on again, never completely understanding why, but knowing they are being followed by evil... The Knife of Never Letting Go is painful to read but impossible to put down.

~reviewed by Dail Sams