The Knife of Never Letting Go is a young adult science fiction novel written by British American author Patrick Ness.
The story follows Todd Hewitt, a 12-year-old boy who runs away from Prentisstown, a town where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts, after learning of a secret about its past.
According to The Guardian coverage of its award, "He turned to children's fiction after he had the idea for a world where it is impossible to escape information overload, and knew it was right for teenagers.
Todd Hewitt is the only boy left in Prentisstown, a small settlement on New World – an alien planet only recently colonized by humanity.
The Spackle are New World's native inhabitants and are blamed for the release of a germ that caused the majority of deaths and was particularly fatal to women.
As a side effect of the virus, the remaining men in Prentisstown can hear each others' (and animals') thoughts, described as an ever-present cascade of what they call Noise.
When Todd explains the silence to his adoptive parents, Ben and Cillian, his Noise accidentally projects the discovery to the entire town.
The girl silently leads Todd through the swamp to her scout ship, where her parents' bodies lie dead.
She hears this in his Noise and flees, but he pursues her, along with Manchee, until they both encounter Aaron and Prentisstown men who are tracking them at a bridge.
The girl saves the three by soaking part of the bridge in lighter fluid and setting it on fire with her campfire pack.
Worried at an attack and frustrated with what he feels is cowardice for keeping Davy alive, Todd leaps at the Spackle and kills it, but faces instant regret.
When the plan is unsuccessful, Todd and Viola get away but are compelled to leave Manchee behind with Aaron, who kills the dog in a fit of rage.
After gaining distance, Ben explains the truth: the Noise germ is a natural contagion of the planet, not an attack by the Spackle.
The boys were supposed to learn a "version of the truth" from the Mayor on their thirteenth birthday, which is why Ben had sent Todd away; he could be accepted by the rest of the world only if his thoughts were wholly innocent.
Ian Chipman from Booklist gave the novel a starred review, praising the "pure inventiveness and excitement" of Ness's narrative, and supporting the book's characters, adding that "the cliffhanger ending is as effective as a shot to the gut".
[4] Frank Cottrell-Boyce, writing for The Guardian, praised the novel's opening, and added that the rest of the book "lives up to the thrill of that first sentence".
Similarly, Nicholas Tucker of The Independent wrote that The Knife of Never Letting Go "sets a high standard",[5] while the Chicago Tribune labelled the novel as "a read-alone, stay-up-way-too-late book".