Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness is the third and final full novel in the Chaos Walking series. The prior books in the series include The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking 1) and The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking 2). The first book was a fast paced adventure, with the sequel slowing down in pace to tell a more psychological story. Monsters of Men combines the formula of the two books before it for an extremely strong finish to an incredible series.

The Chaos Walking series follows the adventures of Todd Hewitt, a boy who is now becoming an adult. At the beginning of the series, Todd is confined to Prentisstown, a community consisting of only men. Todd has been told that women no longer exist after a war was fought on New World. New World is the planet in which this story takes place, and interestingly, New World comes with its side effects. On New World, the thoughts and feelings of all men and animals are openly broadcasted; this is referred to in the book as Noise.

In the first book, Todd discovers a girl named Viola who has crash landed on the planet. The crash unfortunately killed her parents who were flying the ship. The appearance of Viola disturbs the peace in Prentisstown and causes the mayor and his loyal soldiers to seek her out, but Todd opts to try and protect her. Todd’s guardians also tell him that he must now leave Prentisstown before the mayor gets to him. This eventually leads to Todd and Viola seeking out a town called Haven at the end of the book, however, Mayor Prentiss has already taken over the city.

In The Ask and the Answer, Mayor Prentiss asserts his dominance over Haven, renaming it New Prentisstown. Eventually, a resistance group lead by women emerges (called The Answer). A civil war is fought between these factions, with Todd and Viola being caught on opposite sites of the fight. Mayor Prentiss is also grooming Todd to make him his loyal subject, and he also begins to teach Todd how to control his Noise so that his thoughts are no longer open to everybody.

The wild cards in this entire plot so far are the Spackle, who are the native creatures of the land. Mayor Prentiss decides to enslave these creatures, thus making them rebel at the end of The Ask and the Answer. This leads to right into Monsters of Men, which is essentially a full on war between the two human factions and the Spackle.

Monsters of Men picks up right where the last book left off. Right away we’re thrown into a showdown Mayor Prentiss, Todd and the Spackle. This happens as Viola is briefing the new arrivals from the Old World. As with the second book, we get to read the perspectives of Todd and Viola back to back; but this time we also get a third perspective sporadically added to the mix; the perspective of one of the Spackle.

The Spackle narrative voice is an interesting one as the Spackle use their noise to universally communicate with one another. They also assign each being a metaphorical name that relates to one of their characteristics. These sections of the narrative help to break the notion that the Spackle are simply vicious beasts with no rhyme or reason. We get to empathize with and understand their motives.

The beauty of Patrick Ness’ writing is that he can truly put you into the mind of these characters, in ways that seem difficult for an average writer to achieve. Every character’s thoughts are pronounced and presented in a way that is unique to them, making them feel authentic. With this level of attachment to each character, it’s easy for the author to create moments that pull at your heart strings and curl your lip in anger at what transpires.

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Though we never get to see things from Mayor Prentiss’ point of view, he is without a doubt one of the best written characters in the book. His character keeps you guessing all the way through. You can never quite figure out whether he is a misunderstood villain with a good heart, or a deceptive mind-controller who’s plotting against everyone. Todd and Mayor Prentiss share a close bond throughout this book that is compelling all the way through.

Not more can be said about Monsters of Men without giving away important plot points. I’ve read many trilogies where I was dissatisfied with the ending, but Monsters of Men provides a strong conclusion to what has been an excellent series. I will end this off by simply suggesting that everyone read the Chaos Walking books.

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I went into The Ask and the Answer not expecting it to be as good as the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go. Fortunately, I ended up liking it even more. With such an phenomenal start to a trilogy in book one, it has to be difficult to top it with book two. But I feel like Patrick Ness really hit the nail on the head with this one.

There may however be some who disagree. The Ask and the Answer is a big shift in gears from the first book. Where The Knife of Never Letting Go excels at being an on-the-go adventure, the events of The Ask and the Answer all take place in one town, New Prentisstown. After pulling a hostile takeover on the town of Haven, Mayor Prentiss claims himself President Prentiss and takes the town under his control (hence New Prentisstown). Protagonist Todd Hewitt, who is carrying a wounded Viola to Haven at the end of book one finds himself captured by President Prentiss. The worse part of this for Todd is that he can no longer hear President Prentiss’ Noise.

In New World there was a plague that caused male inhabitants to be able to hear each other’s thoughts, along with the thoughts of animals and creatures. This is referred to as Noise, and it only affects males. Females can also hear a male’s noise, but produce no Noise themselves. However, in The Ask and the Answer President Prentiss has seemingly taken control of a cure for the noise produced by the people of Haven.

After Mayor Prentiss declares himself President Prentiss he forces Todd into work life and Viola is left with the women healers. President Prentiss ensures that Todd is separated from Viola, and thus Todd spends much of his time worrying about her. The lady healers begin to form a resistance against President Prentiss called The Answer which leads to continuous bombings in the town. The women manage to flee and thus President Prentiss creates an order named The Ask. This leads to a war between the two factions; leaving Todd and Viola caught in the middle.

What stands out about this book versus the first is that you really get a sense of Todd and Viola maturing. The obstacles presented between them are strenuous and their reactions really shape their character. It’s also nice that the book switches between the perspective of both Todd and Viola frequently as the first book was mainly Todd’s own perspective. But although Todd and Viola are the main characters a couple other relationships in particular standout.

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The exchanges between Todd and antagonist President Prentiss are phenomenal. There’s no denying that Todd is willing to rebel against President Prentiss at a moment’s notice to unite with Viola, but at times Todd is obedient to the President, almost like a son. This comes into play in a big way as the President’s real son Davy is tasked with being in charge of Todd while they work. This is another interesting relationship to experience as the two despise each other, but by the end of the book things change in a big way.

Patrick Ness has mastered the art of suspenseful writing, and he can catch you off guard at any point where you think you know where the story is heading. The exchanges between the characters add so much to their characterizations and it makes every character feel relevant to the story. At no point was there characters you didn’t care about, and you can clearly understand the motivations of the antagonising characters.

Furthermore, the writing itself feels more mature than the first book. The Chaos Walking series is stylised in its writing, particularly when inside the mind of Todd. Todd is illiterate, and his passages are written to reflect his illiteracy. But even these stylistic inclusions feel better placed than they did in book one and this adds to the feeling of Todd becoming older and wiser.

There’s much more to say about The Ask and the Answer, but ultimately I feel like detailing every positive will take away from the beauty of reading it yourself. If I had one gripe with the book then it would be the inclusion of a possible love triangle. This possible love triangle doesn’t play out in full, but I fear that it may in book three. If so, then it feels like the inclusion of a love triangle may be a consciously placed story device to appease the target audience. Regardless, I highly recommend reading both The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer; and I hope that the third book is just as good as its predecessors.

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I went into The Knife of Never Letting Go not knowing much about it, besides that it’s categorised as Young Adult. After finishing the book, I don’t agree with this classification at all and I believe it’s unfair for any book retailer to restrict the book specifically to a Young Adult section. The Knife of Never Letting Go loosely fits the category; with the only thing tying it to YA is the fact that the lead characters are both teens. The Knife of Never Letting Go deals with some mature concepts. It’s a political tale full of twists and turns.

The story follows the almost thirteen year old Todd Hewitt who is the last boy in Prentisstown, a town full of men. Todd lives in a world where there are supposedly no women, and the thoughts of men and animals are no secret. The book refers to these thoughts as “Noise”, where the thoughts of other men are openly broadcasted and only those gifted enough to suppress their Noise can hide their thoughts from others.

Todd’s only friend is his faithful dog Manchee, who can also produce Noise. One day while Todd is out managing his duties at the swamp he notices something abnormal. There is a hole in the Noise; he senses a completely silent being somewhere in his surroundings. He tries to investigate but the hole in the Noise disappears. Todd relays this information to his benefactors Ben and Cillian later on and they sadly inform him that he must flee, without much context.

It’s after this point that Todd sets on his epic journey with his dog Manchee, and he soon meets up with what he was told no longer existed… a girl.

The book is written from Todd’s first hand perspective, and the writer Patrick Ness decided to articulate Todd’s illiteracy within the writing. This may be a challenge for some, but I loved it as it really put me into the mind of Todd Hewitt. It also compliments Todd’s inability to read, and serves as an understanding of what the priorities were in Prentisstown. Clearly work is favoured over education.

The world building in The Knife of Never Letting Go is gradual, but well done. At 528 pages in paperback, it’s a big book for something considered YA. This book has to be a commitment, because some of the biggest plot devices aren’t fully explained until much later. What it does do well is keep the pace of the story exciting throughout; to the point you’ll refuse to give up on it even if you are slightly bothered about the length.

The Knife of Never Letting go ends on a cliff-hanger that will have you longing to start book two. I suppose that’s exactly what the first book in a series is supposed to do. Still, after reading such a long book it would have been nice to have a self-contained ending, with subtle nods at what could be next.

Ultimately, The Knife of Never Letting Go is definitely a book I would recommend to a young reader of ages 16+, and it’s completely accessible to adults if you enjoy reading long dystopian adventures.

If you’re someone who appreciates properly structured writing then you may not have patience for this books creative approach to character emphasis, but I assure that it is done in good taste. The Knife of Never Letting Go is certainly the most stand-out YA book I’ve read, but if I had my way it wouldn’t even be classed as YA to begin with. If dystopian politics or adventure appeals to you then give this book a try.

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