I was caught up in the narrative and it slowed me down trying to figure out who or what they were talking about. Truthfully, I found some of this bothersome because of the names they ascribed to things: the Burden, the Clearing, the Knife, the Sky, the Source. For the first time we get to hear their noise. There’s also a new point of view to consider in Monsters of Men: the Spackle. Viola and Todd ask the same questions about the adults nearest them and as they aren’t physically together for much of this book, they also ask it of each other. Is he a decent man caught up in extraordinary times? Is he a master manipulator? Is he a monster? Mistress Coyle didn’t fair much better in my estimation. I found my feelings about the Mayor constantly changing.

The lines between hero and villain, good and evil, are blurred in Monsters of Men. The flames spill out from the top of the horned creacher and cut thru the middle of soldiers and men are screaming and burning and screaming and burning and soldiers are turning back and running and the line is breaking and Angharrad is bucking and bleeding and squealing and we’re slammed by a wave of men retreating and she bucks up again and. War proves to be frightening and messy and dangerous. Todd and the Mayor, and Viola and Mistress Coyle are not only at a stand-off with each other, The Spackle (the indigenous people of New World) have risen up to annihilate them. Monsters of Men begins on the eve of war.

Last night I finished the third book, Monsters of Men. The next book, The Ask and the Answer was also fabulous. My love affair with Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy began with The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Monsters of men by patrick ness