The Ask and the Answer: 2/3 (Chaos Walking) Paperback – 5 Jun. 2014

I was so taken with the Knife of Never Letting Go that I went straight into this second volume. Overall, it is a great read - and I finished the last 60 pages or so in one go - I could not “put it down” [reading on the Kindle!]. However, I felt that this volume lacked the pace and depth of the first. Some of this was probably inevitable - the first book was so innovative and gripping from the first page. But also it seems that Ness’ true gift as a writer lies in the intimacy of exploring relationships between a small group of people - father and son, boy and girl, man and woman, leader and second-in-command. When it comes to a wider canvas of lots of people, the story seems to slacken somewhat. That said, the closing scenes are some of the best I have read in any book and really make up for any gaps along the way. I will definitely be reading the third volume.

This was a great book leading on from the critically acclaimed The Knife of Never Letting Go, but there were a few problems.A problem is how the author depicts Todd as readily believing something without any evidence to actually do so and how he is so forgiving. Whether he makes friends with Davy even though Davy shot his father and is probably dead, believing that somehow with him being there he has changed the Mayor once and for all or because he can't see Viola he believes that she has betrayed him.However, having said that the book continued on its relentlessly fast pace with more lies, trickery and a plot to end Mayor, or now called President, Prentiss. Plus a cliffhanger at the end.A great read and a good plot filler leading up to the best one of all, Of Monsters And Men.

My 12-year-old daughter devoured The Knife of Never Letting Go and I, therefore, knew I had to buy this one for her so she could carry on reading through the series without stopping!According to her, this second book is fast-paced and carries on perfectly from book one. However, she prefers the fact that this time, this book offers more on Viola and her thoughts, feelings, and perspective.I’ve watched as my daughter has become immersed in this world and for that reason alone, I can’t recommend this series enough.

Let me tell you about how I had my life ruined by aliens. The Knife of Never Letting Go was a great book. I loved it, and I've been recommending it like crazy. But The Ask and the Answer completely blows its predecessor out of the water. So much happens in such a (relatively) short book, it's a wonder people's heads don't explode while they're reading it. I loved it, and before writing this review I was going to just give it a 4 stars/Essential rating, but now I've decided to go with All Time Favourite. Because my life is ruined and I am crying.So yes, the aliens. The Spackle absolutely broke my heart. I hate Tatum for not warning me, because she knows how I feel about these things (Spartacus has broken me). The Spackle have been oppressed since the war ended, first by the citizens of Haven who treated them as little more than slaves, and then under the rule of Mayor Prentiss, who went the whole hog and started tagging them like cattle and making them poo in a hole in the ground. These intelligent life forms were completely degraded, and it totally broke my heart. Not gonna lie, I'm crying while I write this. Their parts in The Ask and the Answer are the most prominent to me, and it's absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. Team Spackle FTW, everyone else can leave.""We can fight," Davy says. "We proved that. And instead you got us babysitting animals that are already beat."The Mayor considers us for a moment, tho I don't know how or when Davy turned him and me into an us. "If you think they're already beaten, David," he finally says, "then you know very little about the Spackle.""Todd drove me a little crazy in this book. I love him, I really do, but his decisions in The Ask and the Answer broke me. When his hope is taken away, he completely shuts off and forgets about fighting back. He becomes a drone for Mayor Prentiss, and it's awful to see. He does some sickening things, that would have made me hate him if I hadn't already read about him in The Knife of Never Letting Go. I'm looking forward to seeing more development from him in Monsters of Men (if I live through that book, which I doubt I will), because I have a feeling that he's going to rise up and become a great leader.Viola, on the other hand, was pretty much flawless the entire way through. We get to see things from her point of view in this book, since she and Todd are separated for most of it. I spent most of the book fangirling over her, because she is so forking strong and she faced so much, but she didn't give up. She also held onto her beliefs, and didn't let anyone or anything change that. Here, have some quotes.""You haven't even seen me fight yet," I say, standing my ground. "I knocked down a bridge to stop an army. I put a knife through the neck of a crazy murderer. I saved the lives of others while you just ran around at night blowing them up.""As for the romance between Viola and Todd... Well, I can't say that I love it. It totally makes sense that they are clinging to each other and all that, but their relationship is just unhealthy. And also quite cheesy, but let's focus on the unhealthy part. They made some awful decisions because of one another, and I was sitting there wanting to shake them because it was so frustrating. But in a great way, because it provoked emotion from me. I mean, I get that they're very young, and they have no one else on this bloody planet, but STILL. I want them to just end up being best friends, if they both survive to the end of the series, because I think a strong platonic relationship usually works better. For me, anyway.""Everyone here is someone's daughter," she says quietly. "Every soldier out there is someone's son. The only crime, the only crime is to take a life. There is nothing else.""And that's why you don't fight," I say.She turns to me sharply. "To live is to fight," she snaps. "To preserve life is to fight everything that man stands for.""""I won't tell you anything.""But she betrayed you." The Mayor comes round the front again. "She tried to kill you."And at that, Viola lifts her head.She looks him right in the eye.And says, "No, she tried to kill you."""He smiles. "You may have no choice.""There's always a choice," Viola says by my side."There are themes of anti-feminism and terrorism prevalent throughout this book, and Patrick Ness handles it all so well. He's so bleeding talented. Of course, the bits that stuck out to me the most were the slavery, oppression, and genocide, but Ness packs so much into this book that it's bursting at the seams.The ending completely destroyed me. WHAAAAT?!?!? I was hoping that something like that would happen, but I didn't think it actually would. As soon as I got to THE PART, I wanted to scream and cry and jump around my bedroom.I cannot wait to read Monsters of Men, and I'm going to try desperately hard to read it this month. I don't know if it's going to happen, because I have so many review copies to read, but if not that I WILL be reading it in December. I adore this series, and I am almost ready to have my life ruined some more by Patrick Ness.