So uh, I thought it would be a good idea to start doing book reviews, on this blog that I apparently still have. OK, so the first book in the series of book reviews that is to come, is Monsters Of Men, by the wonderful Patrick Ness.
Okay so Monsters Of Men is the third book in the Chaos Walking series, the first two being: The Knife Of Never Letting Go and The Ask And The Answer. (Note: I will be sure to review those two once I come round to re-reading them).
For those who haven't had the pleasure of reading the first two, I recommend you do so right away...Like, NOW. And if you haven't then I also recommend that you don't read the rest of this review, seeing as I can't even give a plot summary without completely spoiling the other books. And for those of you who are still here, lets get started with this review...
Monsters of Men does not mess around, it picks up literally right where the second book left off, with an army of spackle marching down the zig zag road, and the mayor saying: "War, at last". He says it with that wonderful glint in his eye, as if excited by the prospect of war. To the Mayor, war is what makes men MEN, but war makes monsters of men, right?
One of the many things I love about this book is the Mayor, the freaking Mayor. He is, in my eyes, one of the greatest villains in literature in the past decade. Can I even call him a villain? You see, the Mayor does something that so many villains fail to do, he walks that thin grey line between good and evil. Reading the book I often found myself questioning whether he was even that bad, and at some points, I found myself genuinely liking the Mayor, for his wit, determination and relationship with Todd.
Speaking of Todd, he's come so damn far since his days running away from the army with Viola. Running towards Haven, which was a symbol of hope in the first book, it reminded them that hope is always there, they just need to believe it. Then the second book happened, oh the irony...
But back to the relationship between the Mayor and Todd, these two characters have developed so much together, and seeing the relationship between them through out the books is just, amazing. And this comes to what I feel is the core of this series: character development...(Kishimoto, take notes)
What Patrick Ness does in these books, is let characters grow. And it doesn't feel forced either, it feels natural, like you're growing with them. It lets the reader build a sort of, relationship with the characters, as weird as that sounds. It makes the reader genuinely care about the fate of these characters Patrick Ness has crafted with so much expertise. Making it so that at the end of each chapter, I just had to turn the page. I felt as if I was never bored, I was always on the edge of my seat flipping the pages to find out what happens next.
Oh yeah, and Viola is amazing in this book, I loved her character as much as I loved Todd's, and it was great to see how she reacted to the whole situation, and how she reacted to the changes that Todd went through throughout this book.
And a third perspective is added into this book, which definitely caught me by surprise. It took me a while to fully get used to how this character narrates, but after I did I found it added so much to the book. And there are sections in this characters perspective that sounded almost poetic.
Oh and the ending! Honestly, it was beautiful, and I found my self some what sad once I flipped the the last page only to see a blank one staring back at me. There was a sense of lost, as if I wanted more if only to see more of the wonderful characters, but at the same time I was satisfied with the ending I got, a similar sensation to what one gets after watching the last Harry Potter film.
Patrick Ness is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, and this series of books are simply a triumph of young adult fiction.
