The Ask and the Answer

Title: The Ask and the Answer

Author: Patrick Ness

Publisher: Candlewick (2010)

Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Length: 519 pages

Synopsis:  New World was settled by space-faring refugees a generation ago, though when the settlers arrived, they had no idea that the planets unique environment would soon cause men and animals to uncontrollably broadcast their thoughts telepathically.  Women, though able to hear the Noise, are themselves silent.  It is against this backdrop that the story of Todd and Viola, begun in The Knife of Never Letting Go, continues.  Now they find themselves captives of the former Mayor of Prentisstown, the leader of the army they fled across New World to escape.  The Mayor has overthrown the town of Haven by intimidation alone and set himself up as the President of New Prentisstown.  Though some residents are hopeful that the bloodless coup will result in a better life for all of them, the President's new policies have the women of New Prentisstown nervous.  Separated, Todd and Viola will have to make their own decisions about where their loyalties lie.  Will they ever be reunited?  And if they do find each another, will the person they find be the one they lost?

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: For such a lengthy book, this is an amazingly fast read.  Ness has a unique ability to write good people into bad situations and to let the reader watch humanity twist under pressure.  The prequel to this book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, was something I stumbled into quite by accident, but, just like this one, it had me staying up to all hours just to read a little more.  And a little more after that.  The characters range from sweet to horrifying, but all of them have a motivation and their actions make sense.  Watching these conflicting motivations clash in all out war is both intriguing and horrifying, and the parallels to both historical and current events are eerie.  It's one thing to write an allegory about past genocides or current revolutions, but to see the very same scenarios develop out of an entirely foreign series of events... it makes for serious food for thought.  Though this is a book geared toward young adults, I think that the lessons it holds are important for all ages.  Moreover, I think that its method of teaching is important.  Rather than laying out a clear cut path of right and wrong, Ness has characters on both sides of an ideological divide.  Who are the revolutionaries and who are the terrorists?  When is violence necessary?  Who is right?  What is the answer?  Ness doesn't have it, and neither do his characters, but in posing the question, he makes the first step for all of us.