Monsters of Men- Patrick Ness

Book 16 of My Summer Reading Challenge

My rating: 3/5 stars

This is the third book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, which is a series which I really enjoyed reading as I read the first two books, 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' and 'The Ask and The Answer'. I rated those books 4 and 5 stars, which shows that I enjoyed them. So much so that I went on to read this book with high hopes for the ending.

I was disappointed. I am so upset about the ending of this trilogy that I don't particularly want to talk about it. I will start off with some things that I liked about the book and then go onto what I didn't like.

What I liked:

~ I really liked seeing all three sides of the battle with the different POV's with Todd, Viola and even 1017 which was a pleasant surprise and I really liked getting into the head of The Spackle and seeing their motivations.
~ The way in which my emotions about different characters varied throughout the book, with the Mayor and Mistress Coyle. One minute they are the good guys and only want what is best and then the next minute they were the ones causing more havoc.
~ The cover. I had the hardback copy and the sleeve is see through with the white lettering on the sleeve, which I think is pretty cool and I haven't seen anything like it before.
~ This story is so original that I love how different it is. I haven't read anything like this series before and I probably never will again.

Things I didn't like [Spoilers ahead]

~ This book was just over 600 pages long. It was totally unnecessary for what was going on. Yes, there was lots of fighting and the whole war thing between 3 different sides, but I don't feel like a lot actually happened in the book and I feel like the author was just trying to make the book longer by adding areas which did not need to be added.
~ Viola did not get with Lee.
~ Lee was blinded.
~ Acorn was killed off. Poor horse.
~ Viola and Todd fell in love. I saw it coming but I didn't think it needed to be done. It was perfectly fine them being in a friendship and not need to ruin it by having them in a relationship.
~ I wanted to see the ship land and the new settlers arrive.
~ Todd and Viola annoyed me through this whole book.

And finally
~ Todd not dying. As I was reading the end, I knew I was going to give this book 3 stars, but then Todd died, and I thought "The author is going to wuss out and find a way to bring Todd back. If he doesn't I will give this book 4 stars." What does he do? He brings Todd back.

Overall, this book deserves no more than 3 stars, I was even contemplating giving it two but I was kind.

The Ask and The Answer- Patrick Ness

Book 13 of My Summer Reading Challenge

My rating: 5/5 stars

When I began reading this book, I wasn't expecting great things, I liked the first book, The knife of never letting go, but I normally find that the second book is a let down but I tried to keep an open mind throughout.

Needless to say, I loved this book! The whole idea of the secret organisation which is fighting for the cause of good really appeals to me, especially at the begging when there was so much secrecy and speculation over what the Answer is. I love it when a book keeps me guessing throughout.

I feel like there is going to be something romantic between Todd and Viola. If I am honest, I am not particularly keen on either of the characters and I think it would just mess up the book if they were to get involved. I like the way this book is written and it does not evolve around the relationship of the two main characters. If anything, I would much prefer Viola to get with Lee who seems like such a nice guy.

I had such conflicting emotions about Mayor Prentiss and Davy. At the beginning, the Mayor was nice to Todd and Viola and I actually started to get the feeling that he was doing what was best. Oh, how wrong I was. Obviously he was just playing with them the whole time I don't know why I didn't see it coming. On the other hand, Davy was horrible to begin with but then he began to grow on me and I started to like him. In the end I just felt sorry for him, all he wanted was for his father to approve of him as he felt like he was such a disappointment his whole life and he was so happy that he found a friend in Todd. It was sad that his father ended up killing him. He makes a much better character than Todd.

I preferred this book, in the way that both sides of the story were told as they were running along side each other. It meant that I could learn more about Viola and her intentions as well as what the other side are doing.

On the whole, this book was much better than The knife of never letting go, and now I hope that the third book lives up to expectations.

The Knife of Never Letting Go- Patrick Ness

Book 12 of My Summer Reading Challenge

My rating: 4/5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book, and it didn't take me long to finish it. This is a book which is an easy read and great if you want to sit down for a day or two and finish a book quickly. It is easy to get enveloped into the story as events begin quickly in the book, and it doesn't take 2 or 3 chapters of background information before the story actually begins.

As I started this book, I noticed the grammatical errors. This was not a problem for me as it quickly became easy to read and I have recently read 'Blood Red Road' which is also written similar with the errors to point out the characters lack of education. In some ways, I like this as it makes me feel closer to the character in some way and you feel like they are actually speaking in your mind. (My opinion anyway. Other people may find this very annoying.)

Normally with a book, I always get attached to the main character. Unfortunately , I didn't feel this with Todd and I just found him very annoying and I just didn't connect with him. The same with Viola really. This is one of the reasons why this book got 4 stars and not 5 stars for me.

Another reason why this book got 4 stars is that the one character in this book that I did like, which was Manchee was killed. Todd left him to die by Aaron's hand to save Viola which made me hate Todd even more. I would much rather he of handed Viola over than let Aaron kill Manchee. I don't think I will forgive him for that.

I hope that in the next book (As I will continue with this series) is just as good, if not better, as I would like to see how the story develops in New Prentisstown.

Also, I just found out that this book is going to be made in to a film. That could be interesting and I would like to see how they do that.