Genre: Young Adult
Year: 2008
Pages: 479
Awards:
- Booktrust Teenage Prize (2008, Winner)
- Guardian Award (2008, Winner)
- James Tiptree, Jr. Award (2008, Winner)
First Sentence:
The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got much to say.
Description:
A dystopian thriller follows a boy and girl on the run from a town where all thoughts can be heard—and the passage to manhood embodies a horrible secret. Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him—something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
Quotes:
“We all fall. What matters is if we can get back up.” - Todd
My thoughts:
I loved this book, especially the narration and Manchee!!! And I hated what Ness did with Manchee at the end of the book, it made me want to cry out of anger and disbelief! But at the same time I kind of understood why he did that, why there was no other way to go about this.. The book has an amazing plot, so unexpectedly good for YA genre that I just couldn't put it down!
I'm jumping right into reading the second part now, can't wait!!