The Ask and the Answer: 2/3 (Chaos Walking)

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I liked how this was much darker than book 1 and some of the scenes were graphic so beware, I don’t think it is a suitable book for younger children. I discovered lately that I really love darker reads just because they are more realistic, the real world is not sunshine and flowers! All issues are interesting, but I find myself surprisingly uninterested in them, mainly because in this book I am strangely detached from Todd and Viola. In these tough circumstances they are nothing more than naive petulant children used as pawns in various evil plans. They are described as so strongly attached that they are willing to do almost anything for one another and yet they are so easily led to mistrust each other.This mistrust constantly gets them and people around them in trouble, it's painful to read. I think pretty much in this book you simply can't find even one likable person. Todd is the one I dislike the most at this point. No matter how hard the author tries to make us believe that Todd still holds on to his innocence and thus is better than everybody else, it's pretty hard to swallow when you know what Todd has done for no good reason other than his dear girlfriend left him. The book starts out just a little bit slow and doesn't really hit stride until chapter 16. The slow start is probably why I liked the first book just a little bit better. Towards the end there is a very long scene which goes on like William Shatner in Star Trek. This book was full of chilling scenes, including the torture of civilians, namely women. Some of the themes were extremely powerful, sexism, violence, terrorism, to name a few. Also, our readers can give you reassurance that you are on the right path to get the outcome you desire and offer advice if you need it.

You've been spying on me?" he says. "Three months I don't see you, three months I don't hear nothing from you and you been spying? Is that what yer doing in your spare time when yer not blowing people up?" It's also questionable whether the book couldn't have been cut in half instead of making it unnecessarily long. (To be fair, ever since I started working full time I've been questioning the purpose of long books on a regular basis.)Would you consider the audio edition of The Ask and the Answer to be better than the print version? Where to start, where to start? In that first chapter, I was just so proud of you Todd. I feel like we’ve come a long way and it just never stops for you does it? The characters in Chaos Walking are some of the best I've ever read. Every character--from Todd and Viola even down to the horses they ride--is powerful and flawed and full of meaning. Todd, Viola, the Mayor are the major players, but there are no minor players. Everyone is important. Many times I'll describe a book as "character driven" or "plot driven." These books are both--enduring characters living through a powerful story. While it had some weaknesses, the first book in this series, The Knife of Never Letting Go, won me over by telling an original story with some interesting themes, and keeping the level of tension high. In it, Ness imagined a planet colony of religious settlers that had come to start over with a low-tech life. But, oh, by the way, there was a war with the native aliens, all the women are dead, and everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts, all the time. The main character, Todd Hewitt, begins to realize that he wasn’t told the whole truth, and ends up fleeing the dark designs of his town's leaders, several enemies hot on his trail. We see growth in every character. During first book I couldn't help but to think of Viola and Tod as single entity but here we get to see them separated and Viola gets her PoV so we see them develop as characters individually. Mayor (now president) Prentiss evolve from plain bad guy in first book into more subtle manipulator. Davy Prentiss is also no longer Joffrey under different name, we get to see him as person. Not particularly good person but real person nonetheless.

This delivered everything I hoped it would and a million things more. I felt genuine sorrow for all those individuals who read the first book as it was released and had to wait a whole year until this was published. Ness is the king of the cliffhanger! Honestly, he is as sublime a writer as he is a cruel one, and the pain, anxiety, and anguish I felt whilst reading this was only offset by the beauty and grace of the penmanship. I am so glad I had all three books to hand, as I waited approximately one nanosecond between finishing the first book and taking a sneap peek at chapter one of the second.because they spend most of this novel apart, this becomes a novel about faith. faith in the beloved other. because while technically not a YA romance, because there isn't any kissing, it has the perfect shape to become one: the first book is spent fighting together towards a common goal, learning each others' strengths and weaknesses, making sacrifices (sob) to protect the Other, comforting each other and never letting the other lose hope or give up.it is a perfect foundation.

Viola wakes in a house of healing being cared for by Mistress Coyle and an apprentice called Maddy. Mayor Prentiss visits her and tells her Todd is safe, but to keep Todd safe, he wants Viola to tell him about the settler ships bringing the rest of her people to the planet. Mistress Coyle drugs Viola before she can tell him too much. Later Mistress Coyle hints to Viola that she means to oppose Mayor Prentiss. She persuades Viola to tell her about the settler ships instead. Viola reveals there are more settlers on the ships than the entire population of the planet. Viola is reluctant to help Mayor Prentiss or spy for Mistress Coyle. All she wants is to find Todd, then find the communications tower so she can warn her people. The explored themes of colonization, war, gender divides, power, coming-of-age and the good/bad binary, which all ensured this a book where you got to learn whilst you read and where you got to know yourself and your stance on these issues, too. I was irritated with the crazy, indestructible Aaron before. One could argue that Mayor Prentiss is both of those things - his ability to wriggle out of tight places is a bit uncanny, and yes, he's not what most of us would consider entirely sane. Even so, I found him much more subtle and sophisticated than Aaron and understandable to a degree Aaron simply was not. In 2008, he published the first in his 'Chaos Walking' trilogy for young adults, The Knife of Never Letting Go. It is set in a dystopian world where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts. This book won the 2008 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2009 Carnegie Medal. In 2009, the second book in the trilogy, The Ask and the Answer, won the Costa Children's Book Award. The third book, Monsters of Men, was published in 2010. OK, now to the love… my suspicions from the first one are still very much there… if not more. Even though Viola and Todd spend half the book apart you can tell they are still in friends-against-all-odds mode and it’s a great place to be. Especially because they are so young… but I still think something could change.

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Through Viola, we meet the healers, and a new character by the name of Mistress Coyle. Mistress Coyle tries to develop a relationship with Viola, asking her questions about the new settlers coming in, and pumping for information about the invading army, and trying to get Viola to understand that the decision to surrender was not a unanimous one. Unfortunately for Viola, it takes her too long to figure out Mistress Coyle isn't the beacon of hope she promises to be. And just as the story is becomes overloaded with moral and emotional dilemmas, just as a full scale war for possession of the New World begins-- Another cliffhanger ending.