Monsters of Men

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

(Chaos Walking Trilogy: Book 3)

Published: September 28, 2010 by Candlewick

"War," says the Mayor. "At last." Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? How can there ever be peace when they're so hopelessly outnumbered? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await? But then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge.

Read my review of the 1st book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, here.

Read my review of the 2nd book, The Ask and The Answer, over here.

        This is officially one of the most epic book series I have ever read. I keep trying to find new words to describe these books and I can't get away from that word *EPIC* because it just sums it up so well. This book is so full of action but it tackles some seriously deep issues at the same time and keeps you guessing the whole time. Patrick Ness is made of awesome and so are his books. GO READ THIS SERIES NOW *ahem* Sorry, got a little carried away there. 

Reasons I love this book:

• no holds barred action- the actions starts right away with a war against the Spackle and a war for the support of the settlers between the Mayor and Mistress Coyle. As I've said before, I have such admiration for authors who get their hands dirty and aren't afraid to hurt or kill off characters (not that I'm saying that happens but you definitely get the feeling that no one is safe here)
• narration- even faster swap-offs between Viola and Todd, each of which ends on a cliffhanger. This is very cool because it gives you 2 views on the war at hand and covers the same times (i.e. Todd sees a bomb go off and kill some Spackle, Viola hears the same bomb go off and hopes it didn't kill Todd once you switch to her view)
• stakes are high- true of any war, but really driven home here as we follow a group of people who are possibly the only humans on the planet and are fighting the native species right as settlers begin to land....whoa. 
• Wilf + Lee- 2 characters I already loved prove themselves again- I wish we saw more of them
• SPOILER!
• Viola's armband- I know this part sucks for Viola and Todd but the drama of the band slowly killing her and how she put it on to get to Todd is palpable
• END SPOILER!

Huh, what?:

• MINOR SPOILERS!
• 1017's POV- learning how to understand the Spackle noise took me a little while, but this is something that helps you realize how high the stakes are for everybody in this war
• random Spackle is gay- 1017 is a random Spackle when we meet him in book 2. I mean, yeah he's angrier than the others, but still just 1 of thousands. It doesn't actually matter to the story that he's gay (yes, he's out for revenge of his one in particular but he would be whether his one was male or female) I don't know guys, it just felt a little like an afterthought to add some diversity, and while I'm a fan of diversity I wish it felt more intentional (Unrelated: Did anybody think Dumbledore was gay before JK said so? Because when I read them I could have sworn he had something going on with McGonagall in the early books)
• Todd's quiet Noise- 1st Todd learns how to block his Noise from others, including Viola. Then he learns how to control people with it...just like the Mayor
• the ending(!)- I do not like this ending! I'm usually a fan of ambiguous endings, but after all Todd and Viola went through I wanted to see this end on a high note
• END MINOR SPOILERS!

The boyfriend factor:

• So once again, my boyfriend is in love with this series and kept bugging me to read faster so he could flip out to someone about everything that happened.

Is this the end?:

• Yes. *tear*

Favorite quotes:

• "Stop!" I shout, whirling round to see who fired, but all I see are confused faces among the women and men with guns-                                                                                                                 And Wilf standing over next to Lee.                                                                                                        And Lee with a rifle in his hands.                                                                                                           "Did I get him?" Lee says. "Wilf aimed for me."                                                                                       - Viola  pg. 527  (you won't know until you read the book why I found this funny)            
• ...but it's been obvious since the beginning that wars make no sense. You kill people to tell them you want to stop killing them.                                                                                                                Monsters of men, I think. And women.                                                                                                   -Viola  pg. 287

5 robots

Go read this series- you won't be disappointed!

Acquired: Bought