War Makes Monsters of Men

Monsters of Men: A Chaos Walking Novel by Patrick Ness

I have recently read many ends of stories, so far this year I have finished several series that I have read for many months and in some cases a year.  This is yet another end of a story.  When I started The Knife of Never Letting Go it was a suggestion from a friend who loved it, the same friend did not enjoy The Ask and the Answer and didn’t even try to read Monsters of Men.  I read The Knife of Never Letting Go, but decided to get the audio books for the second and third installments.  I loved them all and I was so glad that I listened to them because the actors that performed the recording did an excellent job.  I had the book and the audio book and if possible I usually preferred to listen instead of reading it myself, that is how well of a job they did on the recording. 

This series is about several groups of invading aliens and how they interact with the native species.  This new world is full of communication, the men can hear each other’s thoughts while the women remain silent.  This causes many problems and with the settling of the aliens comes many troubles that lead to wars.  We enter the story after the Spackle (native species) War and before the war that ends all wars.  Our story in this third book follows not only Todd and Viola, but we also are in the voice of 1017, the banded Spackle that we meet in The Ask and The Answer.  Of course it was different being in the voice of the Spackle that hates Todd so much especially since the audience and Viola love Todd.  It was an interesting twist so that we could see the story from every angle.   

This book had one of the craziest endings of book history (slight exaggeration).  I was actually quite shocked by the course of the events in the last several chapters and couldn’t get it off of my mind for quite some time after finishing.  I cried at the end and was upset at the turn of events. 

Throughout the series I fell in love with the relationship with Todd and Viola, it was love, but not lust.  There was a relationship that was beyond a teenage love with all that they had been through and conquered just brought them back together and closer.  I enjoyed the entrance of Lee into the story and how Viola was not swayed from her devotion to Todd and was not even tempted to go in the direction of a new found interest. 

As most books go, I miss the characters when I am done with a book and that still goes with this series.  I loved them, they became my friends and I miss them now that the story is over. 

I would recommend this series to any reader of all ages.  And if you like to listen to your books, this should be next on your list.  Keep Reading my Friends!