Title: Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking #3)This series did things to me. It had me in tears and preaching about it from rooftops. I loved Todd and Viola and the world-building and I still think about Manchee. I sped through The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer, needing to know what was going to happen next but for some reason it took me a lot longer to finish Monsters of Men.
Author: Patrick Ness
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Release Date: September 28, 2010
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It was one of those books that I enjoyed reading and was interested to see where the story would go, and how Todd and Viola's story would end, but I just didn't love it like I did the first two.
Monsters of Men is an epic conclusion chock full of constant action. And I mean constant. From page one to the epic of all epic endings, there is a war with three armies and mind games aplenty. And it was all written in Patrick Ness' superb writing style. I kind of hate that I didn't love it because it was a great addition to the trilogy.
But there was a little too much action for me. I felt like we didn't get to see much of the characters outside of explosions, battles, tactical planning, etc. There weren't enough moments between Todd and Viola because they were always separated. And then that ending. Warning: there will be tissues and lots of WTF-ery involved.
Also, there is a great new voice added to the mix: 1017, the Spackle that Todd helps save in The Ask and The Answer. It was great to learn more about the Spackle and see more of this strange world. I just wish we could have seen more of the subtle character growth and world-building and life of the first two novels.
As much as I didn't love Monsters of Men, I liked it. I still love the trilogy as a whole but expected something... different from the way it ended. It didn't diminish its power or my soapbox for the Chaos Walking trilogy as a whole. And I've been told I'm one of the few who didn't love it so as picky as I may be, do yourself a favor and read this trilogy.
2 comments:
I have got to finish reading these books! I'm 50 pages in The Ask and The Answer, but it's so intense that I had to put it down.
I remember reading this book a while back. I cried SO HARD. But I do agree, there was a ton of action in this book, a little too much for me. I felt like one thing after another was happening and I didn't have time to process everything. Otherwise, I thought it was a great end to the trilogy. Great review!
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