Review: The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

…this series is dystopian YA at its finest, focusing on two young people struggling to survive in a brutal environment where there seems to be little hope and no easy solution as everything around them surrenders to violence… ~ Under the Covers

The wounded Viola has been captured by Mayor Prentiss and Todd will do anything to save her, even become part of Mayor Prentiss’s new order. But soon rebellion starts and the past seems like it is going to repeat itself and Violet and Todd find themselves torn apart to opposing sides, each taking they never thought themselves possible of.

It has been a while since I read The Knife of Never Letting Go so I was worried when I initially started this that I wouldn’t remember or would have lost my connection with the characters and the story. I am very pleased that I was so wrong! From page one I was dragged back in and the story took hold of me, I think part of the reason why was because it was told from first person and the start scene is particularly intense, especially as Todd is such a great character; I was helpless but to turn the pages to see what happened next.

The Ask and the Answer ratchets up the tension and the scope of the series dramatically from the first book. Although it is about the survival of Todd and Viola still, it is now also about their survival during a war and it isn’t just their physical bodies they have to worry about as they are both forced in to untenable situations where every choice leads to a soul scarring atrocity.

But this series is dystopian YA at its finest, focusing on two young people struggling to survive in a brutal environment where there seems to be little hope and no easy solution as everything around them surrenders to violence and they are stuck inbetween. The unique and interesting way it is written also makes this book stand out in my mind as it manages to display in the written word the difference in the two main characters thought patterns just by the structure of the writing when told from their POV, making everything more intense, it is very clever.

Although I may not have enjoyed this one quite as much as the first book, I still found it enthralling, full of adventure and gut wrenching emotion; love, hate, hope, helplessness, forgiveness and all the other emotional goodies that a fantastic book hands out. I look forward to reading the next and final installment of this trilogy.

Reading Order & Buy Links

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[about-author author=”Patrick Ness”]