How would you function if, as a result of germ warfare, everyone could read your thoughts, and you could read everyone else's? Oh, and that includes animals, such as your unwanted pet dog who can be very preoccupied with his bodily functions. And you are the last boy, bored and isolated, in a town full of increasingly grim men and you are less than a month away from your 13th birthday, a birthday in which you will undergo the strange secret initiation that will finally turn you into a man. But then you accidently discover something that changes everything and everyone...and you must run.
The Knife of Never
Letting Go is not a book to read if
you are having trouble getting to sleep…actually it's a book to read if you are
having trouble staying awake . In
fact, reading this book is the equivalent of a experiencing the effects of
highly caffeinated beverage consumed while blindfolded on a skateboard headed
down an icy covered hill accompanied by a sound track that alternates between
heavy metal music, static, and silence. I read this book months ago, and at first couldn't remember if it was a movie or a book; the images were that vivid.
The author, Patrick Ness, has commented that the story was influenced in part by both the eroding sense of privacy in our world and the explosion of information available to everyone. He's interested in how we filter though it, but also what would happen if the filters were suddenly removed. What are your feelings on this?
How would you cope? This is a book packed with action, but also with ideas. What struck you about it?
