Monsters of men by

24 May 2010


Call no:
Genre: ,
Setting:
Rated :

ISBN 9781406325942
Chaos Walking #3
Author’s site

The final book in a series can often be a tough one to read and enjoy. On the one hand you want it to end happily ever after for the characters. Especially is you are at all invested in them. But at the same time you also want it to be truthful. By which I mean you don’t want the author to duck the difficult decisions and have some quick get out of jail clause. And I’m happy to say that Ness manages it all, with some brilliant writing along the way.

If you haven’t read the first two books in this series you really shouldn’t be reading any further in this review. Not that I’m setting out to spoil anything, it is simply that they are brilliant books and I always think it is best to begin a read without knowing anything at all about the plot. I knew nothing about The Knife of never letting go before I opened those pages and began to read. And while it took me a chapter or two to really get into it, once I did I loved it. And The ask and the answer followed suit. This book starts off where that ended with war looming over all involved.

Once more Todd and Viola find themselves separated and as they try to find peace and get back to each other they also find that maybe they can’t trust the other?

I really tried to read this book slowly. I wanted to appreciate it. But after a week in which I managed that purely because I didn’t have the time to get into it I sat down this evening and read most of it in one chunk. I simply needed to know what happened next.

Ness has this brilliant way of tugging on your heartstrings, all the time being so damned practical and allowing you to see the other side of the argument. There are no absolutes here, it is all wonderfully subtle and complex. You really do wonder how everything will ever end up even half all right at the end. Or if it will?

Other reviews: Vulpes Libris ; Things mean a lot ; Bart’s Bookshelf


As Patrick Ness has joint American & British citizenship I’ve tagged him as both. He was born in the US.

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