Review: The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Spoiler-Alert)

★★★★★-5

Apr 20, 2019

***spoiler warning***

I AM FULL OF SO MANY EMOTIONS IT IS GETTING HARD TO HANDLE. I'm at a loss for words besides: frustration denial desperation depression rage While it may seem concerning that a book made me feel all of these things, fear not! I loved this book from cover to cover. Even if it did incite a burning fury within me. Patrick Ness is a ruthless man. He does not hold back. I mean this in two main ways. The most obvious one is in character deaths and utter heartbreak that he seems to enjoy inducing in his readers. A true sadist. I love it. While there were tons of deaths in this book that made me sad, the death of Davy really hit me the hardest. I have no idea how Ness got me to like this character, but man was I warming up to Davy. I really cared about him and found his fondness for Todd charming. His growth from an evil follower to a son who simply wanted his father's approval was heartbreaking. Especially when it was his own father who killed him. I will never get over it. I truly hope that he knew that Todd forgave him in his final moments. The other way that Ness does not hold back is in his social commentary. This book blurs the line between revolutionaries and terrorists and it was fascinating to realize that maybe there isn't just a good side and a bad side. Maybe violence is needed, but maybe it's not. With that, comes the plot twists, which were more than plentiful. I guessed a few (and the major one) coming, but they were still great nonetheless. Figuring them out beforehand definitely did not hinder my experience, and the ones that I did not guess still blew me away (the bomb in the backpack omg). All in all, I am terrified to read the final book in this trilogy, but I also can't wait. I need Todd and Viola to be safe, but that seems to be nearly impossible based on where this book left off... May Patrick Ness please have mercy on me.