The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

Everyone in Prentisstown can hear everyone else's thoughts in the form of raucous, overwhelming Noise - there is no space for privacy, secrets, or silence. But one day, deep in the swamp, Todd Hewitt and his dog find an area of complete quiet, which is completely unheard of. Slowly, Todd beings to suspect that Prentisstown has a history different from the one Todd has been taught, and this history drives Todd and Manchee to flee for their lives. The only problem? It's hard to run when there's nowhere to go and everyone can hear you think.

The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, was recommended to me a couple weeks ago by Michelle (a.k.a. Clover) of Fluttering Butterflies. If I liked the Hunger Games series, she said, I'd like the The Knife of Never Letting Go. I immediately put the book (which was, of course, checked out) on hold at my local library, and it came in a few days ago. Michelle, you were definitely very absolutely extremely correct. The Knife of Letting Go is the perfect book for anyone who likes the Hunger Games trilogy - and, for that matter, anyone else.

Like most people invested in the Hunger Games books, I cried while reading Mockingjay. However, I was suprised to find that I cried even more during The Knife of Never Letting Go. Does that make me a bad Hunger Games fan? Anyway, The Knife of Letting Go is absolutely amazing (though not because it made me cry - that does not, in my opinion, define a good book). Todd, who narrates the book, cannot read or write, and I thought at first that his dialect might detract from my experience. However, it became more natural and less noticeable over time, and I didn't really have any issue with all the "ain't"-ing. Todd and Manchee were both very likeable, and I thought Ness did an excellent job of portraying what dogs would say if they could talk. The plot was excellent - fast-paced, fairly complex, and utterly engaging. The Knife of Letting Go was, for me, one of those books where you completely and entirely forget what's going on around you and are wholly absorbed into the story. The book accurately portrays the costs of war while not being too overwhelmingly depressing, and leaves the reader wanting more. 

Now, I need to go finish my homework so I can get started on The Ask and the Answer!

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

We watched this movie at the end of the year in one of my middle school social studies classes, and the movie made want to never, ever read the book. All I remembered from the movie was a gory boar's head on a stick and a bunch of boys running around like wild men and fighting with each other. I probably wouldn't have picked up Lord of the Flies due to this experience, so I'm glad I had to read it for my upcoming AP English Literature class. While I don't love the book by any means, I understand and appreciate it far more then I understood or appreciated the movie.

In Lord of the Flies, a group of English schoolboys are crossing the ocean (in all likelihood they were evacuating the country, as it is implied that there is a war going on) when their plane crashes, killing all the adults and leaving the boys stranded. Two boys, Ralph and Jack, quickly emerge as possible leaders, and all the boys vote for Ralph to be the primary leader, with a boy called Piggy as his second man, and for Jack to be the head hunter, with a boy named Roger as his next-in-command. Eventually, Ralph and Jack become the leaders of opposing factions rather than leaders working together within one group, and more and more boys join Jack's group out of fear or a desire for power. As Ralph's group grows ever smaller, they become the prey of Jack's hunters and must struggle to stay alive.

My favorite quote from this book is found on the very last page: "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and ----." The last part of the sentence is a spoiler, so I won't post it here, but I felt like that quote kind of mirrored how I felt after finishing the book. Lord of the Flies is and excellent portrayal of the dark side of human nature that exists to some extent in us all, young or old. One thing I found particularly compelling was the faith of some of the children in the power of adults to set things right. At one point toward the end of the book, Piggy wishes that adults were on the island because things wouldn't have gone so badly wrong. However, this is clearly contradicted by the fact that the adults in the story, though absent from the main plot, are waging a war that on many levels makes no more sense than the war between the two groups of boys. The theme I got from the book is that people are generally dark creatures, and that the great wars of men and rulers are no less nonsensical than the war games of children. Depressing? Yes. Dark? Quite. Fortunately, that is often to my taste, and such was the case with Lord of the Flies.