The Ask and the Answer
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4.5 • 48 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"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 –". 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 The new edition of this tense, shocking and deeply moving novel features a brand new and previously unpublished short story, The Wide, Wide Sea. Set before the events of Monsters of Men, it is a story of love and loyalty in a divided world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This grim and beautifully written sequel to Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go picks up where its predecessor left off and will have readers racing to its painful conclusion. Having escaped from the dystopian, all-male Prentisstown, teenagers Todd and Viola have fled to the city of Haven, only to discover that Prentisstown's mayor, a powerful and charismatic sociopath, has gotten there first, intent on controlling the entire planet. Separated, the friends are caught up on opposite sides of a horrific, morally ambiguous civil war, with Todd coming close to madness. (Viola later reminds Todd, who has undertaken some shocking and cruel responsibilities while working with the mayor, "We all fall but that's not what matters. What matters is picking yourself up again.") This superb novel, which ends with a gripping cliffhanger that sets up the third Chaos Walking book, uses a brilliant cast of well-developed characters and its singular setting and premise to present a provocative examination of the nature of evil and humanity. This is among the best YA science fiction novels of the year. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
this book series is everything
this book is, well how do i put it, amazing, in every way possible. i love how it shows the different perspectives of todd and viola and the lesson it teaches you. this book can get quite dark and brutal but as a 14 year old girl i loved it so much it’s difficult to put into words. i highly recommend you read this books series. quick warning - you will cry, laugh, be so angry, and have to put the book down for a few moments as you go through the amount of emotion going through your head.
please, i’m begging you - read this book series you ain’t gonna regret it ;)
No one is innocent in the town of Haven
It’s quite funny, in a way, what we classify as “young adult” literature these day. The first book in this series, “The Knife of never letting go” is a compelling, but relatively straight forward coming of age, “ominous pursuit” story. “The Ask and the Answer”...well, it’s a fairly different kettle of fish.
The premise of the first book - where even in a society where no man’s thoughts are private, the truth is still a fragile construct - becomes an almost incidental detail. Instead this story, told from the perspective of both Todd and Viola, is far, far darker, coming close to series like “His Dark Materials” in just how dark it is.
It explores a horrific loss of innocence for both characters and how awful things can be done with the best intentions, or how depravity can creep up on you without you fully noticing. And it does so in a remarkably restrained way - the descriptions of the events and the language the author uses is not grotesque or graphic, and yet each event is a little more awful than the last. I was actually somewhat horrified at one point that this book is marketed ostensibly at children...
Which is not to say it isn’t a compelling read, because it absolutely is. You could even go so far as to say that in today’s day and age it’s a *important* read, and a modern interpretation of the consistently important reminder that “I was only following orders” has been used to justify some pretty awful things. It does falter slightly at the end with a possibly too theatrical and verbose ending but it is still a recommended read.
And a bit of a warning - it ends on a cliffhanger as brutal as the first book.