Reviewed by Joséphine on
Initial thoughts: Every book I've read and rated before The Knife of Never Letting Go received at least 1 star. For the first time ever I'm going below that and pegging this book as 0.5 stars. I'm very confused. I liked where everything was going in the beginning. The introduction of Noise intrigued me. It's such a grand idea that I honestly thought I would rave about. In truth, I still like the idea of Noise. I just don't like the book it was couched in.
An idea can only do so much to carry a book. When the rest of the book does nothing to contribute to the brilliance of an idea, that's when I'm irreparably disappointed. The writing style was fresh but the prose itself was dry and boring. The plot was pretty much non-existent, save for a few flashes. This book was 400 pages longer than I was remotely interested in and the characters were so two-dimensional, I've cared more for stick figures idly doodled on scraps of paper.
The thing is, I don't even hate The Knife of Never Letting Go. If that was the case, then in the very least the book would've elicited a passionate emotion in me. No. I'm just bored, tired and exhausted from reading it. There were so many gaps that precluded any logical thought while I was reading and yet even that failed to surprise me during significant reveals. I just didn't get how anyone could come to conclusions about anything without any evidence to back them up.
It was most frustrating that most of the necessary evidence didn't even surface by the time the novella rolled around at the end of my paperback edition. I skimmed the novella. The New World was from the perspective of Viola. There she had a lost more personality but since she showed none in the actual novel, I was hard pressed to find an ounce of curiosity in me about her background.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 8 February, 2016: Finished reading
- 8 February, 2016: Reviewed