Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Review Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Perhaps, if you follow me on social media, you already know that I actually bought this book before I bought the other two in the Chaos Walking Trilogy.
It was quite an impulse-buy; it was priced off, so I thought: Why the hell not?
I didn't know then that I was going to love this series so much - I had even considered to bring this book back, instead of buying the other two! WHAT?!
I'm really glad I didn't.


Summary

Todd has finally beaten the Mayor and Viola has run off to the scout ship that has landed on New World, hoping to get there before the Answer does.
But then a new danger, a new army, enters the battlefield and so the war rages on.
Three armies with dangerous weapons fight each other off, while Todd and Viola are in the middle of it, trying to stay out of the nasty grasps of the leaders of this war and aiming for peace on all sides.
But will they manage, when there is a third voice who's out on revenge?

My Opinion

Rate: 9.5/10

AND IIIIIIII-I-IIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!
- My reaction after finishing this book and with that, this series.

Man, this was such a fun ride! A real emotional roller coaster - I've never felt so connected to characters or to books themselves before. Patrick Ness has done such a fantastic job on this series and I don't think that any sci-fi-/fantasy-writer can top that!

While reading, I really felt this war-like feeling; the desperation, the disgust for the dirty, dirty tricks all the parties dared to use, the pain and the madness - the complete madness.
And I think we can thank our amazing kind of-sort of-not really-but totally villains the Mayor and Mistress Coyle for that; their choices and visions that brought every single person in New World deeper and deeper into war; their pride that made them unable to see the most logical solutions, but also Todd and Viola, because of their strong feelings for each other - wanting to win this war for EACH OTHER and you consistently see this vision come back in everything they do.
And that's what has done the trick, eventually, I suppose - Ness consistently confronting us with the visions of the characters (what do they ACTUALLY want out of this war?), making us understand every character more and more, but also making the tension rise because of it and making things more complicated - are our heroes doing the right thing? Or are they being way to selfish?

Another beautiful thing to see, was how much everybody in the book has grown, and changed, of course. Some also literally like Todd, and some still changing (not going to tell you who, hehe).
If I'd compare the characters of the first book with the ones in the third, I must say I feel so much difference! They've actually grown up, learned how to deal with things differently, but not SO differently that they look like entirely different persons. 
I basically felt like Todd's mom, who was watching him from above and saw how he - and Viola - was dealing with everything that came at him.
I can tell you she's very proud. *wipes away a tear*

What was rather funny and fascinating than beautiful to see was how the different perspectives (Todd, Viola and the third voice (read the books if you want to know who exactly)) didn't only give us different viewpoints on the same situations, when they were in the same situation at the same time, but also seem parallel against each other. 
By this I mean that they are similar situations, but then at different places and at different times with different people.
For example in relationships: both Todd and Viola are forced to work together with the people who they hate the most: the Mayor and Mistress Coyle. Both the Mayor and Mistress Coyle are trying to use them to win this war, but both of course with different methods. Now both Todd and Viola are confronted with similar questions from them or about them, with the same feeling of having to work with them but not wanting to work with them, but both deal with them in completely different ways and as a reader you just see how different the outcomes are. It is a very simple thing, but I just felt that it was just a notable thing.

Actually I found the parallel between Todd and the third voice the strongest. I'm not going to tell you too much about - I'm trying to keep my reviews spoiler-free - but I can tell you that they're on complete opposite sides, and the third voice really hates Todd. Now the third voice is also working for his people and is close to the leader of them (like Todd to the leader of men, the Mayor) and you can just see, see sooooo clearly, without any of them noticing how much the same they both are and how similar the relationship between them and the leaders is - it's just so utterly fascinating!
And the fact that the leaders affect them both so differently, is just strange and kind of funny, I want to say but it sounds quite strange in this context, haha...

Furthermore; this book was really action-packed. Event after event after event after event - all so freaking terrifying and awesome and heartbreaking. People are dying all around you, New World is being destroyed - so much chaos.
I think Ness has portrayed this background perfectly!
Other than that I think that that what made the all the events so powerful are the way it's described. And then I'm not talking about the words that are chosen or the perspectives; I'm actually referring to more esthetical points of the descriptions: the way the sentences are built.
You see not only in this book, but in the two books befre, when Todd or Viola is going through a terribly fast and terrifying event they start to think in cut off-sentences.
They repeat words (We push forward- Forward forward forward-) and, like I said, they cut off their sentences (And there he is- Right in the middle of it- Fighting of Spackle- "Todd," I whisper-) and that makes the events really go fast and feel terrifying!

And that's actually all I've got to say! 
This book was a fantastic ending to the sorry, even though I'm really sad it's over. I'm pretty sure I'll be re-reading this series soon and I hope that I've convinced to try and read this series, too? Let me know in the comments or in social media if you do and I hope you will love it as much as I do!

Until the next blogpost, then! :)

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