Review: The Ask and the Answer

The Ask and the Answer
Chaos Walking #2
Patrick Ness

Part two of the literary sci-fi thriller follows a boy and a girl who are caught in a warring town where thoughts can be heard — and secrets are never safe.

Reaching the end of their tense and desperate flight in THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, Todd and Viola did not find healing and hope in Haven. They found instead their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss, waiting to welcome them to New Prentisstown. There they are forced into separate lives: Todd to prison, and Viola to a house of healing where her wounds are treated. Soon Viola is swept into the ruthless activities of the Answer, aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical government. Todd, meanwhile, faces impossible choices when forced to join the mayor’s oppressive new regime. In alternating narratives — Todd’s gritty and volatile; Viola’s calmer but equally stubborn — the two struggle to reconcile their own dubious actions with their deepest beliefs. Torn by confusion and compromise, suspicion and betrayal, can their trust in each other possibly survive?

Rating: 4/5

Quotes:

“To live is to fight, to preserve life is to fight everything that man stands for.”

“It's not that you should never love something so much that it can control you.
It's that you need to love something that much so you can never be controlled.
It's not a weakness.
It's your best strength.”

“Faith with proof is no faith at all.”

My Thoughts:

This book. It was really good and so much like the first book with the feelings I have. As with the first one, everything just gets worse and worse as time goes on but I loved how strong Viola and Todd are with each other. That is probably my favorite thing about this series. Todd and Viola both go through so much trauma, but they have each other. No matter how bad things get or how destroyed they get as people, the other can always snap them out of it. And it isn't cheesy in the least bit, it is so real. And that is why I love this series so much, even with all of the death and violence.