Book #57 of 2024: The Knife of Never Letting Go | Book #58 of 2024: A Burden Shared

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

Quick synopsis: On a new world, humans do bad things and the main character has nonstop bad things happen to him.

Brief opinion: I first read this book in 2013 (review here) and called it one of the best books I had ever read. It didn't work anywhere near that well for me on second reading 10+ years later.

Plot: Set on a planet humans only just arrived on, in a town that has some deep, dark secrets, Todd is the last boy -- the only one not yet a man.

Todd is told many lies growing up. Basically everything about the town is a lie.

A native species was already living on the planet when the humans arrived. The people of Todd's town said the "aliens" went to war with them and released a virus that was supposed to kill all the livestock but instead made men's thoughts all able to be heard. The humans called it Noise. Every thought a man had, every lie he tells himself, every fantasy, can be heard by anyone (man or woman) in his Noise.

Eventually Todd escapes the town and spends the entire (long) book running from the town's army and the seemingly unkillable priest.

While running he meets a "modern" human girl from space -- her colony ship was only just arriving with more people for the planet. Boy, girl, and boy's dog are chased by the army and unkillable priest. Bad thing after bad thing happens to them. Nothing else, just bad on bad on bad on more bad. Hell, even the boy's dog was killed in a brutal way.

Writing/editing: Both were good. Book is written in first person by an uneducated boy, so lots of stuff is misspelled/in an accent, but I got used to it quickly and it never tripped me up.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: When I was picking my next book to read, I wanted something light. This was the opposite of that. It was just non-stop bad, endless hopelessness, the kids repeatedly beaten (physically, mentally, and emotionally). Anything that could be bad was bad. I stopped caring, because if the only thing happens is bad stuff, you know it's only going to be bad, so why should I hope for anything good to happen?

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️ - 2 stars, disliked. What a drop from "best book I ever read", huh? Books 2 and 3 are already out, but I'm not finishing the trilogy.

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A Burden Shared by Jo Walton.

Quick synopsis: Set in a world where physical pain can be shared with other people, what happens when a woman carries her daughter's pain for too long?

Brief opinion: Luckily this was a short story and not a book, otherwise it would have been too heavy and depressing. It was already depressing enough.

Plot: Technology exists where if you're in pain and someone else wants to help you, that person can take that pain on for a time (so movie stars and famous people never feel pain ever, fans line up to take their pain).

A woman's child was born with a painful disease, so the mother and father (divorced) split the time, both of them carrying all of her pain. Unfortunately this means when the mother has pain of her own, she thinks it's the daughter's and ignores it until it's too late. She had some bad cancer.

Writing/editing: Both were fine, though there was a pretty big plot hole. Why didn't the mother feel the pain from the cancer when the father was carrying the daughter's pain?

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: The whole story made me uncomfortable (as I think it was intended to do). It was written well enough, but I didn't enjoy it at all.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3 stars / okay.