The Ask And The Answer By Patrick Ness - A Review By Laura

Synopsis

We were in the square, in the square where I'd run, holding her, carrying her, telling her to stay alive, stay alive till we got safe, till we got to Haven so I could save her - But there weren't no safety, no safety at all, there was just him and his men...

Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode...

 

"The Ask and the Answer" is a tense, shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure. This is the second title in the "Chaos Walking" trilogy.

I had no choice but to give this book 5 out of 5 stars, Patrick Ness makes it impossible for me to love this book anymore than I do. Before I began reading it I was thinking to myself how the majority of book series, from my experience, always get worse as the books go on. The plot starts to lose direction and in some cases I feel as though the authors only carry on writing extra books for the money rather than because they feel the story needs more. In the case of the chaos walking trilogy I feel as though Patrick Ness has used books one and two as a build up for the final book.

Things I love about this book;

First of all the title, He is so clever with naming his books, at first I wondered where the title could have possibly came from and what it could possibly mean but while reading the book it becomes clear, both sides of the war, The Answer (Mostly the women of the town) and The Ask (Major Prentiss and mostly the men from Todds old town).

It is told from both Todd and Violas point of view. Viola is with The Answer and Todd is with The Ask. Ness has chose to write the book jumping from Todd narrating one chapter to Viola narrating the next, it works so well, he has even wrote it in a way that allows us to hear Todds Voice and Violas and be able to tell them apart without having to refer to the '[Viola]' at the beginning of the chapter. Unlike the first book Todd and Viola are separated for most of the time and although this should make you see them as individuals, which you do, you also see how strong their connection is and how they are doing the things they do for each other. At certain times in the book they think that the other is betraying them and this made me want to shout at them through the pages. Just like the first book I was left in suspense at the end of the majority of the chapters, I have had this book in my hands at every given opportunity, I could have happily stayed in bed one day and have this book finished, unfortunately I had work and other commitments that prevented that happening.

Not once could I even guess where the story was going, there was certain points in the book where I thought I knew what was going to happen but within a page that theory would vanish.
It's made me need to read the next book like now!
It is a kind of love story from the boys perspective, to me that is rare.

Throughout the book we meet a number of new characters which Ness has created for us to fall in love with and even know I am sitting here wondering if they are okay, whats happened to them? where are they? I just need to keep reading... The next book is already open and waiting for me. That is all I have to say on this book, I am getting too excited just reviewing this book that I cannot wait another second to start the final book of the series. You really need to read it, believe me it is highly unlikely that you will not like it.