Summary (from Goodreads):
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the
settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men
think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from
becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is
hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with
only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the
town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a
girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New
World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle
journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows
in order to figure out who he truly is.
Review:
This was such an amazing surprise of a great book! I knew
I’d like it because there are so man good reviews for it. And I’ve owned it for
a long time. It’s on my reading challenge list of the year because it kept
getting pushed to the end of my TBR lists, and I’m so glad I finally read it
and put it at the front of my list. The only problem now is that I want to read
the rest of the series, and I won’t have time to for a while. But still, it’s
so good.
The book is kind of this smorgasbord of all cool YA themes:
there’s mind-reading, feminism, talking animals, a creepy mystery, lots of
discovering everything you knew about the world was wrong moments, war,
kidnappings, fight scenes, important books, family drama, other worldly travel,
aliens, and plenty of growing up. Seriously, just when I decided something
like, “Oh, this is one of those dystopias,” I’d change my mind and declare it
fantasy. And then after a while, it becomes sci-fi to the extreme. And despite
all these fantastical elements, it never became too unbelievable. Like all good
dystopias, it seems so real; like it’s possible the world can turn out this way
(though I very much hope that it never does).
The whole concept of a world where men always know what
everyone else is thinking and there’s never any quiet, is so completely
terrifying. I love the idea that women’s mind’s are unreadable (once we know
there are women alive out there –I’m not spoiling; this happens in the
beginning). I also loved the writing style. Nothing is info-dumped on the
reader. The reader is actually responsible for figuring out some things for
him/her self. I called the biggest mystery only because I have read a lot of
other dystopias. On the other hand, there were smaller details I didn’t guess.
And I loved not guessing these things.
Todd is both the typical and also not so typical main
character. He’s typical in his goodness. He can’t kill people (even the bad
ones who attack his family and friends and then try to kill him). He does what
his family asks of him even though he has no idea what is going on for a lot of
the story. He wants to help his new friend, Viola, even though he knows nothing
about her.
On the other hand, Todd can be selfish. He complains a lot.
He swears. He judges people before knowing them. He never thinks of his dog
before he thinks of himself. He’s terrible at lying and keeping thoughts to
himself, even thoughts about how his world has not been kind to women. And his
dialect is annoying…I had to throw that in. There is a definite slang to the
language he speaks and lots of misspellings done on purpose that I never officially
got over. But, all of Todd’s flaws (except maybe his language) add to his charm
for me. I liked that despite all these things, he’s probably the nicest
character in the book.
Nothing is easy for Todd, ever. Between the deaths left and
right, the running for his life constantly, the starving, the fighting, the
bruises, the losses, and the life-altering realizations he never really has a
moment of peace. And this made for some highly entertaining plot devices. This
book is action-packed. It read like a mixture of a Stephen King novel, a
Veronica Roth novel, and The Giver. I honestly do not know how better to
describe it than by making those comparisons.
I enjoyed the book from start to finish. It’s filled with
tons of action, a never boring plot, and lots of twists and turns. The
characters are wonderful. The world is terrifying. There’s pieces of fantasy,
dystopia, sci-fi, and even contemporary YA in it. There is some weird language
stuff I was not the biggest fan of, but still I give it a 10/10.
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