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books

The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness

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Todd Hewitt, a boy on the cusp of manhood, lives in Prentisstown on New World, where his people settled in order to live a simpler life closer to God. Only problem is, the natives of New World weren’t the friendliest, and during the war that ensued, they released a germ that killed off all of the women (including Todd’s mother), half of the men (including Todd’s father), and caused all men’s thoughts to be broadcast. (Incidentally, all the animals can speak too. Who doesn’t love a talking dog?) This Noise is not something that can be turned off or ignored – it is always there, and it is the concept from which Patrick Ness draws the title for his trilogy, Chaos Walking. As Todd tells us, “Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just Chaos Walking.”

In The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first in the trilogy, Todd is mentally preparing himself for becoming a man in a few short days when he stumbles upon a strange silence in the Noise, something he knows cannot exist. But there it is – silence, in a way even louder than the Noise itself. Todd’s discovery changes his life completely, setting him off on a mad chase as he is pursued by several men who may or may not be crazy, are probably lying about everything, and most certainly want to kill him. This is an oversimplified synopsis, but much of the joy of reading a great dystopia is its newness. The less you know, the more enjoyable it is. You’ll have to take my word for it that this is a great one.

The idea of being able to read minds (willingly or unwillingly) is not new, but Ness writes about it in such a way that it feels fresh. He makes several stylistic choices that contribute to the unique feel of the book. The most obvious is the way he (or his editor) chose to represent Noise – in a radically different, messy, large font. At a couple of points in the book, Noise covers a whole spread of pages, and the effect is powerful. Reading those pages feels both fascinating and claustrophobic. While I love audiobooks, I can’t imagine listening to this one. It really should be read with the eyes.

Several of Ness’ other stylistic choices also paid off. The story is told in first person present tense, and the feeling is that Todd is telling it to you as it happens. This technique works great for an action-centered book such as this, whereas I find it a bit wearing in other books. Todd is illiterate and grew up in a pretty primitive settlement, so he tells his story in dialect. Far from being annoying, it makes Todd an endearing, frustrating, and real person. I could hear Todd speaking to me; it felt as if I were reading his own Noise. At points when Todd is stressed or proud or angry, he’ll give the reader a parenthetical aside – (shut up!) – bringing us even further into his mind. Ness also makes liberal use of run-on sentences when Todd’s thoughts are moving too swiftly for proper punctuation. Some of the action sequences are written with short, fragmentary, one-sentence paragraphs, a technique I found less successful but didn’t detract too much. The end result of these style choices is that the reader is left with a book that really feels like a creative work. Ness isn’t just telling us a story – he has created something, and it is different and artful and challenging.

A lot of well-plotted young adult fiction suffers from a lack of depth or meaning. I can immediately think of a dozen young adult books that start with a great premise but just aren’t very good books. The Knife of Never Letting Go is not one of these. Like The Hunger Games, which I was reminded a lot of while reading Ness’ book, The Knife of Never Letting Go is essentially one long action sequence, but I feel that Todd’s world and its characters were better fleshed out. It is for this reason that I anticipate reading The Ask and the Answer, the second book in the trilogy, even more than I anticipate reading Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games (and I did really like The Hunger Games).

Truly great literature always includes three essential things: an interesting plot, eloquent writing, and layers of meaning. This one’s got them all, particularly that last one (it won the Tiptree award, but the way the book explores what it means to be a man is not its only takeaway). Sure, it’s not a perfect book. The short lines irritated me, and at points I had a hard time suspending my disbelief. But the book’s strengths overwhelmingly outweigh its weaknesses. How do you think your own community would react if everyone’s thoughts were suddenly broadcast to you, without any way to stop it from happening? Would your community’s reaction make you proud or afraid?

The Ask and the Answer will be released in the US one week from today. That is plenty of time for you all to go out and read The Knife of Never Letting Go. And then you can send me a message and we can commiserate over how much we hate Patrick Ness for [this phrase has been removed due to spoilage]. And how even though we truly do hate him, we’re still going to read his next book.

While you wait for the second or third book, check out this short story prequel that Ness has written. Even though it’s a prequel, it’s heavy on spoilers, so don’t read it unless you’ve read Knife.

Ripley’s Seeing is Believing GIVEAWAY

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The new Ripley’s annual for 2010 is out, and guess who has a copy to give away to one lucky reader? As if giving a copy of this awesome book is not enough, I’m throwing in a coupon good for buy one get one admission at any of the Ripley museums that is good through December 31, 2010.

So something has happened with these Ripley books, and that something is fantastic. When I was young, I remember Ripley’s books being very similar to the thick volumes of Guinness World Records books: information, interesting stories, and a few black and white photos.

But this bad boy is jam packed with awesome full-color and full-page pictures.

This volume of Ripley’s has some great feature sections. It’s divided into 12 sections that highlight feats of the human body, food, science, earth, and more.

The book begins with a history of Ripley himself which gives a nice overview of the hows and whys of his entire story and legacy. I loved the nice feature on Houdini within the “Incredible Feats” section but was perhaps most impressed with the fold out feature on P. T. Barnum in the “Body Oddity” section. There’s been a lot out about him recently, but with the research and name of Ripley’s, this one’s expertly done (and not to mention incredibly interesting with the layout and use of photos).

Did you know someone paid $3,154 to buy a half-eaten piece of toast … of Justin Timberlake? What about the fact scientists in the UK studied the brain waves of locusts while they watched Star Wars? Oh, and the urban legend of mentos and diet coke? Well, you can look at the photo for yourself. And be careful if you are trying to have children and live in Nebraska or New Jersey: you’re much more likely to have triplets than anywhere else in the country.

This is a book that boys and girls will enjoy. The photos are so interesting, the colors and lay outs of the pages are evocative and engaging without being overwhelming, and the snippets of human and non-human feats are attention-grabbing. What I love about these sorts of books is how they can be picked up and read at one’s leisure any time. They also never get old — you can read it again and again. Ripley’s is good for all ages, though those who are squeamish may want to skip some parts of the book. It’s a tried and true favorite and, well, SO MUCH BETTER than when I was a kid!

If you want to learn more about Ripley’s annuals, check out their website here. If you want to buy the book, you can check out a good deal on their facebook page. But as I said before, I have a copy to give away along with a buy one get one pass.

GIVEAWAY RULES:
Please follow ALL of the rules to be entered!

1. You can earn an entry through these means:

+ 1 if you comment with your email address
+ 1 if you comment with a Ripley’s believe it or not type fact (and if it’s something you pull from their website, even better!). If you can link to your source, you’ll win our librarian hearts.
+ 2 if you subscribe to our feed or are already a subscriber
+ 2 if you tweet the giveaway or you blog it — leave your twitter name/blog name in the comment. You can get 2 entries for tweeting and 2 entries for blogging for a total of 4.

2. You leave a separate comment for EACH point you earn (to be clear: comment on this post once if you just leave your email address. Add a second comment if you are also commenting with a “believe it or not” fact. Add two more comments if you subscribe or are a subscriber. Add two more if you tweet or blog it. So, the most comments you’d be leaving on the blog is 8 — you tweet, blog, subscribe, tell a believe it or not, and leave an email). Please don’t leave one comment with all your points; we’ll never sort through them!

3. Contest runs from now until September 11.

To sweeten the deal a bit, the winner will also receive an ARC of choice from my bag. It’ll be a surprise! If we get 75 comments or more, there will be a second winner of an ARC of my choosing (of course, with a bit of input from said winner).

Good luck. I’m so excited that the wonderful folks with Ripley’s sent this title along. It’s a beautiful book that will be well-loved by the lucky winner.

Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson

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In the last couple of weeks, I’ve read two books that were very guy-friendly and one thing that both of them had in common was how darn funny they were. First, I read Steven Goldman’s Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath, which had me laughing out loud at a couple of places. Then, I got to a book that made me laugh way more than a few times out loud: Blake Nelson’s Destroy All Cars.

When I began Nelson’s book, I was a little worried. I’d read a number of reviews that claimed it was nothing but a “liberal agenda set forth in teen fiction.” While I don’t mind a book with a political bent in any direction, this particular one had me a bit worried. Fortunately, Destroy All Cars was so not just an agenda.

James Hoff is a very angry teen, but not in the manner you’d suspect. Hoff spends his time railing against the factors that are destroying our planet, and more specifically, he spends significant time pointing out how much cars are ruining the planet with their emissions and their gas consumption. At 17, he is acutely aware of how important it is to cherish the environment and make strides against seeing it destroyed. How fitting, too, he lives in suburban Portland, Oregon, which allows this entire aspect of the plot to manifest quite well.

But James’s story is not just about his anger at environmental destruction. Rather, this is a story about losing the first girl he ever had real feelings for: Sadie. She was his first real girlfriend for him he had real feelings, and the break up was hard for him. James spends a lot of time in his junior year thinking about other girls and who he can potentially have relationships with post-Sadie. Although we’re briefly introduced to a few girls, it is quite clear he’s not interested in anyone but Sadie. And why Sadie, you ask? Well, she, too, is quite concerned about the world and rallies for any number of causes.

The story chronicles James’s interest in lambasting consumerist America and his interest in getting back together with Sadie.

Although the story itself sounds like something that’s been done again and again, Nelson does something very unique with the structure of the book itself. It’s told through James’s point of view, but it’s done so through a number of lenses. First, James shares his essay assignments for Mr. Cogweiller’s English class and subsequent remarks from Cogweiller; throughout the book, we’ll see that some essays are more successful than others and we’ll see that some don’t even get turned in. In addition to these very funny essays are James’s journal entries, which in some cases include the dialog between himself and other characters. Splitting the story into different mediums of writing like this is very successful in this book, and it does a fantastic job of building James’s character. We are also able to watch James develop in his writing and thinking, and we develop our own relationship with Cogweiller.

Perhaps what I liked most about Destroy All Cars was that the messages were valuable, but they were put in such a way that they were very, very funny. James and Sadie are both fighting for something valuable and important and understand how necessary it is to be aware of our environment. But, in James’s case, his awareness manifests in anger and outrage that are so spot-on for his character. While I don’t believe all 17-year-olds operate with his mindset, I think that a lot of how he acts and thinks is on par with that age group. He’s not ridiculous nor is he stupid. He’s passionate and inexperienced at the same time. James would be an easy character to dislike but as a reader, I really liked him and wanted to see him succeed. Nelson did a fantastic job of delineating him.

I think this is a book that guys would definitely like. It’s not overly emotional, and the format makes it a very quick and easy read. It helps that James is relatable and very funny. Admittedly, I can see people being turned off by what they might see as an agenda in the book, but I don’t think that’s Nelson’s point at all. In fact, I think that Destroy All Cars conveys the message that people in this age group are already aware of and concerned about, making it more appealing. Most of the book is clean, with little foul language, though about 3/4 through the book, things get a little sexual. It’s not risque nor unexpected and it fits with the story.

One of the other reasons I liked this book so much was because it allowed me to think about myself and my own development. This book captures a 17-year-old so well, and it allowed me to think about who I was at that age and who I am now.