12 Days of a LitPig Christmas: 10

On the 10th day of Christmas my LitPig brought to me ...

TEN FALCO MYSTERIES

NINE BILL BRYSONS

EIGHT PENELOPE LIVELYS

SEVEN KATE ATKINSONS

SIX UNSUED COOKBOOKS

FIVE CRIME FESTS

FOUR DAVID MITCHELLS

THREE MARGARET ATWOODS

TWO HOMER SAGAS

and

A BOX SET OF ROALD DAHL BOOKS

Each day I want to share the writing of an author that I read for the first time in 2011.   These are my personal choices - you may know many of them, but perhaps one or two will be new to you ... So why not try a new author in 2012.  

October 2011:
PATRICK NESS: The knife of never letting go

This is the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy and was Patrick's first book for children, or Young adults as this written for 12+, and won the Guardian Children's Fiction prize.  It is set in the future, where people can read each other's thoughts (and animals too! The squirrels are hilarious).  Just think what sort of hell this would be.  The story is told by Todd as he reaches the age of thirteen - to become a man in the eyes of his community.  But his reality is truly a man's world as all the women and girls have died.  At first I struggled with the very masculine voice of Todd and the tone of the writing, but then quickly became absorbed and gripped by his story.  The writing is at times blunt and simple, but that's exactly what a thirteen year old boy talks like.  By the end of volume one I was rooting for Todd and his companion, galloping to find out what happens to them.  But there is a tragic finale to this book, one that really shook me - I read the last pages through tears.  Masterfully this left me wanting to read on - now I have book two 'The ask and the answer' and can't wait to start reading...

Other novels by Patrick Ness:

The Chaos Walking trilogy:

The knife of never letting go (Walker Books, 2008), The ask and the answer (Walker Books, 2009), Monsters of men (Walker Books, 2010)

A monster calls (Walker Books, 2011)

For adults:

The Crash of Hennington (Flamingo, 2003)

Topics About Which I Know Nothing (HarperPerennial, 2005)