Patrick Ness - Monsters Of Men

Monsters Of Men is the concluding book in Patrick Ness' fast-paced, edgy, ambitious Chaos Walking trilogy, and concludes the series at a suitably breathless, breakneck, page-turning pace. 

Ness introduces us to the odd but utterly believable Chaos Walking world in Book One, The Knife Of Never Letting Go, by narrating the book entirely through the eyes of wide-eyed innocent Todd, born on the Chaos world but compelled never to have left his home town of Prentisstown through propaganda and fear led by the town's evil Mayor, the main - but certainly not the only - villain of the series. The Chaos world hinges on the unusual phenomenon of the 'Noise' - the thoughts of all men are broadcast out loud to everyone in a constant, blaring, screeching mess of colour and confusion.

In Book Two, The Ask And The Answer, we switch viewpoints between Todd and Viola, Todd's female counterpart from the first book and the catalyst for Todd's ventures into the world beyond Prentisstown. As the Mayor encroaches upon and then overtakes the world's default capital 'city', Haven, we witness increasingly devastating events though the eyes of Todd and Viola, who are used by The Mayor and resistance leader Mistress Coyle respectively as pawns in an ongoing battle that often reads as much as a war between two powerful egos as it does between two distinct ideologies.

Monsters Of Men sees Ness introduce a third voice into the mix, 1017, one of the native Spackle species of the planet who had waged a bitter war with the incoming human race several years previously and who harbours an all-consuming hatred and bitterness towards Todd after events from the previous book. As the Spackle begin their own attack on both sides of the human battle, Ness piles on layer upon layer of suspense, action and cliffhangers as the trilogy hurtles towards a conclusion that manages to be satisfying, hopeful and heart-breaking all at once.

What makes all three books so remarkable is the amount of themes and philosophy Ness manages to bring in without it ever eclipsing the constant forward thrust of the plot. Chaos Walking is a series written in a frenetic style and designed to be read as such, yet even as I pelted through the pages desperate to find out what happened next, I picked up on big themes such as the futility and destruction of war and its consequences, the conflicting and sometimes cruel decisions made by leaders at times of crisis, the seeming impossibility of maintaining peace alongside individual desire for power, the question of what constitutes the 'bad' side when the actions of war inflict atrocities upon the innocent regardless, and a whole heap of other things beside. Our loyalties shift and twist and change throughout; Ness pulls off the almost impossible trick of making all this work - and work towards the progression of the overall story - while always keeping our main focus and interest on the heroic centre of Todd and Viola. Todd and Viola are the moral centre of the story that all the other plot points stretch from; Ness is pulling off a frantic act of plate-spinning, juggling and surprising his readers and it is to his credit as a writer that he doesn't let any of the threads or themes slip once. 

Chaos Walking is far more than a straight forward action trilogy based around the high-concept gimmick of the Noise. Its plot and themes are as involving, deep and morally complex as any trilogy intended for an 'older' audience. It is no less than the best series of young adult books since Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and deserves to be discovered and enjoyed by adult readers just as much as that trilogy was.

Chaos Walking is the crowning achievement of a tremendously skilled and gifted author. If Ness does ever manage to top it, there will be no question he won't just be the best young adult writer of his generation, but one of the best of all time.

Patrick Ness - A Monster Calls

In his brief introduction to A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness tells us that the book is based upon the last idea of the late Siobhan Dowd - a winner of the Carnegie herself a couple of years previously for the superb Bog Child. He also mentions his wise choice not to try to emulate Dowd's style, but to take the original premise and put his own spin on it (the impression I got was that Dowd had completed no more than the bare bones of the idea and possibly a basic plot outline). 

This results in a book that doesn't read to me as typical of either author's output.

The plot is simple: Conor's mother is dying of a terminal illness, and he is finding it difficult to cope with. He's fell out with his best friend, he's being bullied at school, and he feels emotionally distant from his haughty grandmother and his father, who has remarried and moved to the USA. Conor is understandably angry, upset and confused as his mother gradually gets more and more ill, resulting in a number of incidents that may or may not be down to the presence and influence of the titular monster.

The monster appears outside Conor's bedroom window near the beginning of the story and shows up several other times. He tells Conor three stories that raise a number of questions regarding our perceptions of the characters and the moral choices they make. The monster encourages Conor, at times, to behave in ways disturbing and destructive to the people around him, before its true purpose is revealed at the end of the story.

This is the only book to have received both the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway (the equivalent medal for illustration) in the same year. The version I bought was the cheaper, text-only version, although I did have a quick glance at Jim Kay's dark, atmospheric illustrations and was impressed with what they added to Ness' work.

Patrick Ness is one of the best writers of young adult fiction of his generation, and like all his work, A Monster Calls is brisk, engaging and adds just enough description and character quirks without it overshadowing the story. Compared to the scope and emotional heft of Dowd's Bog Child and Ness' own Chaos Walking trilogy, though, A Monster Calls feels somewhat slight to me in comparison. I've lost a parent myself and was expecting to be reduced to floods of tears at the end, but the story is too brief and Conor's other issues too quickly resolved in order for me to engage with his character as fully as I needed in order for the end of the story to have the powerful emotional pull that I thought it would. As sad as the ending was, it didn't quite have the emotional impact that I thought it should have done.

I also couldn't help wondering what Siobhan Dowd would have done with this story had she been able to complete it herself - I'm fairly sure the plot might have gone down something of a different path to the one Ness chose. The emotional impact of a powerful writer such as Dowd writing about a woman dying as this was happening to her personally might have carried a weight and substance that Ness, for all his undoubted and innate skills as an author, wasn't quite able to conjure up.

A Monster Calls is as well-written, polished and professional as you would expect from two such talented writers, but the overall sum of its parts is somewhat less than either author's best work.