The Knife of Never Letting Go
Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown, a New World colony where a Spackle germ killed every woman and turned every man's thoughts into broadcast Noise. A month before his "becoming a man" ceremony, Todd and his dog Manchee find a patch of silence in the swamp that should not exist. The mayor and a deranged preacher hunt him out of town, and Todd runs across the New World with a girl named Viola, whose silence cracks open the lie Prentisstown has been telling itself about what really happened to the women. The first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy.
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The last boy in a New World colony of broadcasting men finds a patch of silence in the swamp that should not exist, and runs across the planet with a girl whose silence cracks open the founding lie.
Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy has three books: The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men. The trilogy is complete. A short story collection, The New World, is also available.
Yes. A 2021 film adaptation directed by Doug Liman and starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley was released. The film consolidates the trilogy and is widely considered a weaker adaptation of the source.
The Knife of Never Letting Go was written by Patrick Ness, published in 2008 by Candlewick.
The Knife of Never Letting Go is 496 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Knife of Never Letting Go takes most readers 7 to 11 hours to finish.
The Knife of Never Letting Go is a standalone novel by Patrick Ness, not part of a series.
The Knife of Never Letting Go is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.