Monsters of Men

By Patrick Ness

Todd and Viola had saved their planet, they had it all under control and the mayor was in their safe hands, or so they thought. As the war continues and the Spackle fight back, Todd and Viola fight for what they think is right and try not to be affected by the corruption and death going on all around them. All three armies claim they want peace in their new world, but will they ever get it?

I must admit that I was not looking forward to this book, but, it surprised me and I actually quite enjoyed it after all. The characters are very well described and they each have different points of view. They share their feelings and their noise with the reader and you can look through their eyes into the battles. My favourite character in the novel was Bradley as I thought he was very open and honest and thought things through logically. Also he was prepared to fight for peace and listen to what the enemy had to say about things.

The narration of the book was shared by three people- Todd, Viola and Spackle 1017. This was clever of Ness as it allowed each army or camp to have a part of the book. I especially enjoyed reading 1017’s entries as for me their language was a whole new way of talking. Ness’ description of the battles and surroundings on the new planet was amazing (and sometimes gruesome!) and I thought he did amazingly well to create a brand new world and species but still make them seem realistic and well thought out.

I have not read the previous two books in the trilogy (despite constant nagging from Will and other members of the library!) but, I do think that this book can stand on its own as a novel. Apart from a few references to the prequels, I completely understood what was going on throughout the story. The plot I thought was a little boring, being mainly about the war however, it was more exciting nearing the last 200 pages or so. During these chapters, in which I finally got into the book, you believe everything’s going fine and it is all going to end happily, but then suddenly something unexpected happens which twists and changes the storyline and outcome. This is genius from Ness as it captures your attention and makes you really want to read on and find out what happens after the certain calamity.

Lastly, although I really liked Todd for his personality and general feeling, I had a big problem with his spelling. I understand he is not supposed to have been to school and this is making the book realistic but it annoyed me throughout the book! Formation becomes “formayshun” and through becomes “thru”. He spells solely on phonics and the way he thinks it should be written down. I personally think this was very off putting and I stopped at every version of his words. This made my reading of this particular book, up until the last chapters, very stinted and slow.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book and I am really glad I listened to my friends and read it! It had great narration and a completely believable new species and planet. I thought that the characters were fabulous and well created and that the plot was surprising at every turn. You never knew what was going to happen and this gave another dimension to the novel. My only problem was that the plot was a little boring to begin with but luckily this was solved when I got into the climaxes of the book. Also I hated the way Todd spelt and it really put me off when I was reading. Despite this I did think that this book was very interesting and very well written indeed!

By Eleanor, Year 8