This is the first of a new trilogy that takes place in the world of the “Chaos Walking” books: The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008), The Ask and the Answer (2009) and Monsters of Men (2010).
The title “Chaos Walking” refers to the main idea of the series: on a colonized planet in the future, a virus caused thoughts to be heard aloud by everyone else. People could even hear the primitive reflections of animals. The result was constant noise and information overload. The focus of the books turns on how all that chaos affected the characters.
This new series starts 20 years later. Todd Hewitt is now married to Viola Eade. They are raising two boys, Ben and Max, both aged 15 and around 6 months apart. (Max was adopted.)
Max and Ben alternate narrating. Ben isn’t able to speak at all. Most humans on the New World had taken “the cure” to rid themselves of Noise, but as Ben explained, he alone of those who were “cured” ended up not even being able to talk. He communicated either by signing, or by typing words into a comm. But as he argued, “I can’t speak, but I’m not without a voice. Okay?”
As the story begins, Ben and Max witness something they call a “god” – a giant, skinless, screaming creature enveloped in flames – that runs past them and crashes into the lake. At first no one believed them, but other unusual things had been happening. Many kids were having horrible nightmares filled with Noise. A large, strangely-shaped airship had showed up in the sky and was moving closer. And then, more of the “gods” appeared, their lethality making them all the more frightening. In the ensuing chaos, fear, and death, there was renewed scapegoating of the native people of the planet, known as the Land, or more pejoratively, as Spackle.
As with Ness’s other books, this one offers plenty of insightful remarks into human nature and politics, many of which are relevant to the current state of the US, as when one character emphasizes:
“You have no idea how the real world works. You still think people want the truth! They don’t. People want certainty!. They want the comforting lie, the one that lets them sleep at night. They want to know who their enemy is, because they’re never, ever going to believe it’s themselves.”
Yes, this is only book one, but it is worth reading now, and re-reading when the second comes out, if necessary. If you don’t want to read it yet, don’t open it and start the first chapter; you’ll be pulled in and won’t be able to stop!
Evaluation: Complex characterizations and surprising plot developments illuminate the themes of family love, support, and loyalty. Moments of deep tenderness and poignancy are intermixed with edge-of-your-seat tension, fear, and visceral cruelty. Throughout, the author impressively adds so much nuance to not-always-heroic good guys and not-always-evil villains that the story will seem realistic, in spite of the fictional premise.
[If you need a refresher of the previous series, you can consult the Chaos Walking Fan Wiki.]
Rating: 4/5
Published in the U.S. by Candlewick, 2026
