Bookish Thoughts

This book, really this whole trilogy, was stressful. I'm glad I made it through, but it was definitely rough going. I almost put the book down and walked away from it entirely, though I'm glad I didn't. But that's not the author's fault. It's just that reading a book about fighting a fascist despot hit a bit too close to home in the current political climate. It didn't help that the metaphor was a bit too perfect. Information flows free on this planet in a way that's overwhelming. And the mayor/president is better at controlling it than anyone else. At using it for his own ends. He's ultimately able to directly control other people, which raises the uncomfortable question of just how responsible Todd is for his actions. The thing is that Todd does some really despicable things. The enemy singles him out as the worst of all humans because he knew that what he was doing was wrong but he did it anyway. But he was coerced. And the question remains op...

Man, reading this book was stressful. At least part of that is because of what was happening in the world when I was reading it. It turns out that dystopian fiction (and especially the second novel in a trilogy when everything gets really bad) is not great escapism when real life is starting to feel like a dystopia. But that doesn't mean it was a bad book. There was a lot to like about it. Mostly, I appreciated the fact that the narration was split between Todd and Viola. Todd is a frustrating protagonist. He was raised in a toxic environment and kept ignorant. This makes him easy to manipulate and means that he spends most of the book following the bad guy's orders and trying to justify it to himself. Viola, on the other hand, is everything I want from a YA heroine. Intelligent, eager to learn, and able to see the bigger picture. She has a strong moral compass, and while she's willing to concede that other's might know more than her, she keeps coming back to what s...

The Knife of Never Letting Go  is the first in a young adult science fiction dystopian trilogy. I remember hearing about it back when the last book was released. Not any of the plot details, just the very strong emotions it seemed to elicit in the people who had read it. It fits right in with the other young adult dystopian literature that came out around the same time. The book follows Todd Hewitt, the last boy in a town full of men. The women all died shortly after Todd was born, leaving him as the last baby. He's grown up on an alien world, in a town where everyone's thoughts are broadcast for everyone else to hear. It's a bit of an off-putting premise, but I'm glad I didn't let it scare me away from the books completely. Shortly before his thirteenth birthday, Todd comes across a girl on the outskirts of his town. It quickly becomes clear that he's been lied to for his entire life. But before he can properly wrap his mind around that, the plot kicks off ...