The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
Five out of Five Stars
Book Source: gift
Man, this series. THIS SERIES just gets me in the chestal area! As much as I hate that this book, too, ends on a MONSTROUS cliffhanger, I’m still going to recommend it because it is just that awesome.
Picking up where “The Knife of Never Letting Go” so callously left off, on the first monstrous cliffhanger, Todd and Viola are separated, but they can’t imagine just how separated they have become until they realize they are on opposite sides of a war.
Man. THIS BOOK. I just have to keep saying that because I’m not even sure where to start. Should I start with the creepy awesome villains, who are so creepy, and so awesome, and so REAL, that I at least spent most of the book going, “Don’t trust him/her! Wait! Maybe he/she is ok! NO WAY, DON’T TRUST HIM/HER!”
This book inspires a lot of capslocks from me.
Or maybe I should talk about the fact that there is just SO MUCH going on under the surface of this book. You want to talk about feminism and anti-feminism and chauvinism and racism and xenophobia and torture and “the greater good?” Cause they’re all in there.
But this big theme of this one is trust. Who to trust, and when, and how. Even though Viola can hear everything Todd is thinking, all the time, they still find they start having trouble trusting one another, and that, I think, is a huge coup for the author.
And that’s other huge thing I liked about this book: Todd and Viola’s relationship. Because it could be corny, you know? It could be all, “We’re meant to be together.” It could be sappy and love story and “I’m 14 but I know that you and I are soul mates,” and it’s absolutely not. There’s a friendship element to them, and an element of needing each other and counting on each other for reasons that go way beyond romantic love, and it just felt real and right, and I was totally drawn in by it.
Like “The Knife,” this book is gritty, it’s real, it’s hard to read at parts, it doesn’t pull any punches. There’s blood and death and pain and fighting and betrayal, and not a whole lot of good things in between. It’s tense and taught and hard to put down. And it’s just a hell of a good story.
If you liked this book, you might also enjoy:
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
P.S. I am no longer an Amazon Associate. Because of a change in the tax laws in the state of Colorado, Amazon has dropped all associates in Colorado. So, I no longer receive any money if you click a previous link and buy a book from Amazon. But, I never actually earned any money from that anyway, so it’s no huge loss. From now on, I will be linking books to Goodreads.com where you can find more information on them.
In accordance with the FCC rules, I will still be letting you know where I got the books I review (whether a free ARC, a library book, or one I purchased). Look for this info in the header from now on.