Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Title: Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Release Date: October 1, 2010

Publisher: Walker Books

Pages: 603

Received: Purchased

Star Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? How can there ever be peace when they're so hopelessly outnumbered?[goodreads]

My Thoughts

This review contains spoilers of the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. Read at your own discretion. 

Where to start, where to start. I'll start off saying this is one of my favorite series of ALL TIME. Another super action packed plot full of pure fun :~). But seriously, this book crushed me and I've never felt so awakened by my favorite power couple Tiola. My friend is thinking about starting the series and she's like, "I'll get to it soon..in the future", but please read it! I'll try to divide this review into main category paragraphs. Now lets dive into the shallow end of this novel.

I. The Villains and Minor Characters. There is the Mayor and Mistress Coyle, which we know from the 2nd novel are enemies themselves. In the end, it didn't matter who could outlive the other, but who could control and hold the most power. I had a feeling one of them had to die, but both of them is a treat. Mistress Coyle's death kind of surprised me because she doesn't seem the person to back down from power. But of course, it had to be in the hands of a bomb, this is Mistress Coyle. But THE MAYOR. That left me confused, but happy. He obviously died because no oxygen in the ocean. But walking out like that? Well it was over then. There's Lee, who's cute but almost got in the way of Tiola, but he is just okay to me. And Wilf was back and alive! Then we all saw it coming...BEN. When Ben took Todd aside and said in front of everyone, "Excuse me, I need to catch up with MY SON". I cracked up, then cried. There's Davy Prentiss, I guess his death was sad and I emphasized...I admit it he can be sexist and dumb, so his redeeming qualities were just alright. Wow, there were just a lot of characters I loved...Never forget Manchee.

II. Todd and Viola (Tiola). This pairing has kept me on my heels from beginning to end. The 2nd book with all the separation and independence was kind of necessary, but they grew from their time apart. Now that coms were present, their little talks from working on both sides were very redeeming for this relationship. Also, Todd learns how to control his noise and wield the power and control. Whenever Viola mentioned that Todd's silence was like he was a different person, I was kind of like "I go through this now, deal with it xoxo". But I guess in this world, I'd feel a little empty because after knowing what stupid things he has in head, I'll miss it when it's gone. Viola had those # bands on her and I could tell her pain before the cure was unbearable. And the description while Todd was healing it...my poor daughter. There was also a scene at the end where Todd opens his noise to Viola and I've been waiting so LONG. And THAT KISS...even Viola felt like finally. THE END was the biggest cliff hanger. But in the bonus short story, we find Todd is awake and ALIVE. But I feel bad for those in 201o who had to wait 2-3 years for Snowscape. But now it's an even bigger cliffhanger! But I guess there's fanfiction for that.

I read somewhere that Lionsgate optioned this as an adaptation and nothing has really happened in a year more or less. I don't know if that's the best option, but this series is heavily action packed and I'm sad to see another "Hunger Games remake" type of articles. But these stories cannot be compared. I'm sad to be reading these so late, but better late than never! Read these and let me know your thoughts.

5/5 STARS