In the last 6 months I have become a huge fan of Patrick Ness. I have now read 4 of his books - the truly incredible A Monster Calls was the first. It is a book that he wrote based on an idea by Siobhan Dowd who died from cancer before she could write it herself. I don't want to give too much away about the plot but it is based around a young boy's experience of his mum being seriously ill, how he is processing this and visits from a monster! It is incredibly emotional and emotive but not without humour. It isn't a difficult read and is short enough to read in one or two sessions (approximately 200 pages and the version I read was illustrated a bit like a graphic novel). It would probably be very good as a "life situations" book without being "worthy and boring". Basically I thought it was amazing.
I have just finished reading Ness' Chaos Walking trilogy. While all of the books are brilliant I personally found the first book The Knife of Never Letting Go the best and most original read. The story is of Todd Hewitt, the only boy in a town of men (no women - you'll have to read it to find out what happened to them) where everybody can hear everything that everyone thinks (including animals) due to the 'disease' Noise. When Todd has to leave he soon meets Viola and they go on an amazing journey together as they run away from the men of Prentisstown. It is a story of great heroism and friendship written (or so it feels) at an incredible pace - a proper page-turner.
By the time of the second book in the series The Ask and The Answer Todd and Viola have reached the town of Haven but Viola has been seriously injured and they now find themselves separated and stuck in the middle of a power struggle between The Ask and The Answer and both being forced into situations where it is impossible to do the right thing - there are some real moral issues. We also find out far more about the natives of the planet called The Spackle. One of the things I really love about these books is the way they swap between characters narrating the story so you are constantly viewing the story and the actions of the characters from different perspectives.
The final part of the trilogy is Monsters of Men and the action is pretty much continuous - I don't know if this could ever be a film because at points it just seems too intense and non-stop (at some points I had to put the book down just to give myself time to recover). By this point we are constantly seeing the story from three different perspectives as war breaks out between 3 different groups now including The Land led by The Sky. The main characters are constantly treading on a fine line between good and evil as war (as the title suggests) makes monsters of men.Read the whole lot - I can't recommend them highly enough.
