Bibliography: Ness, Patrick. (September 2009). The Ask and the Answer. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 978-0763644901
Plot Summary: When Todd and Viola’s desperate flight comes to an end in Haven, they do not find the sanctuary they were hoping for. Instead, they are met by their enemy, Mayor Prentiss who “welcomes” them to New Prentisstown. He separates them, sending Todd to a prison-like existence in an old church tower, and Viola to house of healing to have her wounds treated. Todd soon finds himself working beside the Mayor’s son Danny supervising the work of Spackle slaves, while Viola becomes an apprentice to a healer. Both are wondering and worried about the other, and are faced with impossible choices when lines are drawn in the sand and sides are taken–is it ever okay to do the wrong thing for the right reason?
Critical Analysis: A full tilt pell mell run from beginning to end, The Knife of Never Letting Go was all about survival for the short term. If Todd and Viola could just make it to the next town, to a group of people who could help them, and so on, things would be okay. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t complexities to the plot and the characters, there were. What makes you a man? Is it ever okay to take the life of another living being? Even if it goes against your own personal beliefs?
The Ask and the Answer strikes me as having more layers, more there there, for lack of a better way to articulate it. Now Todd is fighting for his and Viola’s survival, but also for the Spackles, and now there is not physical survival, but mental as well. How far can Todd go in acquiescing to the Mayor before he becomes like the Mayor? How many orders can he obey before he has betrayed himself? Viola too has her own problems. She finds herself on the opposing side, the side that at first seems to be morally right. But is it okay to do bad things in the name of right? In the midst of war?
I zoomed through the pages of Knife, emotionally consumed. I read The Ask and the Answer more slowly because there were moments, events in the story that were so horrible, I couldn’t keep reading. And funny to say, these were not moments of graphic violence or something of that nature, but of disillusionment, of realizing that in a story like this, there is no side of right.
The alternating narratives, one from Todd’s perspective and the other from Viola’s only add to this sense. You see Todd doing what he thinks he has to, because he has no choice other than to believe what the Mayor tells him, you see Viola the same, believing what she is told by Mistress Coyle. As the story progresses, the switching happens more and more frequently until you get the same scene from both viewpoints. Very well done use of tone and viewpoint to convey the differences between them. Ness again shows his skill with words and turns of phrase. I can’t wait for book three, but I am even more eager to read whatever he is writing after that.
Review Excerpts: “This superb novel, which ends with a gripping cliffhanger that sets up the third Chaos Walking book, uses a brilliant cast of well-developed characters and its singular setting and premise to present a provocative examination of the nature of evil and humanity. This is among the best YA science fiction novels of the year.”–Publisher’s Weekly
“Provocative questions about gender bias, racism, the meaning of war and the price of peace are thoughtfully threaded throughout a breathless, often violent plot peopled with heartbreakingly real characters. Newbies will need the first volume to understand this one, and fans are given only a momentary respite as the author continues his tradition of cliffhanger endings.”–Kirkus Reviews
