Wednesday, May 26, 2010

REVIEW: Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

OH MY GOD. Seriously. I've never read a book like this. The third in the amazing Chaos Walking trilogy, Monsters of Men was really explosive reading. I had to stop reading about 100 times reading this book because my heart was beating furiously and I almost couldn't breathe, it is THAT exciting. And as much as I wanted to read and read and read to find out what was going to happen, I was also really, really scared. I've been so emotionally-invested in these characters that I wasn't sure how I'd cope if anything bad happened to them. And the book is about war. As in, war makes monsters of men... which can only mean bad things. I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, so I'll keep the details to a minimum.

My poor heart was seriously tested reading this book. And while there is excellent characterisation in the entire series, and everything is very fast-paced and actiony, I also loved all of the questions of morality placed on our two main characters, Todd and Viola as they make some tough decisions between two really powerful and opposing forces. There's so many important themes that run throughout this entire series. The aspect of Noise and privacy of thought, power and control as seen by the ways in which Mayor Prentiss and Mistress Coyle behave. The rights of women, the morality of war. It's such a powerful trilogy of books and I can't stress enough just how much I loved them. They're so intelligent and thought-provoking and moving. I was in minor shock whilst reading the last 100 pages or so of Monsters of Men. Patrick Ness, I salute you for the achievement of these books. Truly wonderful.

Monsters of Men is by far my favourite book of the year and the Chaos Walking trilogy is amongst the best I've come across in a really long time. If you haven't read this books, what are you waiting for?

5 comments:

  1. Did you have to write such an enticing review? I was hoping to have strong will power and not order this book from the library until I had finished my other books, but my will power has now just flown out of the window! Quick where is my library card!

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  2. Must resist adding to the wishlist - keep saying mantra *must resist*

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  3. OK, I really really need to read these. I've thought about it but always chickened out. No more!

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  4. Oh Andi - I'm so glad to hear that! They're really wonderful, you won't be sorry!

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  5. Oh man, I can't wait to read this! The first two were such vivid tense reading experiences, and I am loooonging to know how the series turns out.

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