The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Walker

Pages: 517pgs

The Story

Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss.

Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order.

But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? 
And where is Viola? Is she even still alive?
And who are the mysterious Answer?

And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode . . .

The Review

When I finished this book, THE ASK AND THE ANSWER, I was in awe over it all. Literally. I was just like . . . whoa. I loved this book even more than the first installment in the Chaos Walking trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go, which really says something because never did I think the sequel would top it all off. But it certainly did. It really did as it exceeded every expectation I have for this series. The story, the world, the dialogue and the whole cast of characters were so real - not to mention so raw - in the best way possible. Oh my goodness! Oh my god. Geez. This series has become one of my absolute favourite dystopian series ever and it just keeps getting better and better by the looks of it!

Apart from the storyline that I found covered a lot more ground compared to the first book, the characters alone were the major thing that made this book stand out to me. Each character, no matter their own stories to tell, no matter their roles to play and no matter whether they were good or bad characters, each character always made me cry, laugh and frustrate over in the actions that they took every single time, and that was just because I couldn't help but care about those characters and for me it's rare to care about characters so much . . . especially in this way!

Take for example . . . Todd. Oh my dear sweet Todd. It was like break-heart city in this book when it came to Todd's character and oh my god . . . he's the shining star in this book. He really is. He's so broken and at times so defeated with everything else going on around him, and yet he still manages to hold his head up high because he's fighting back for Viola, another character we met in the first book. His Viola. I swear, every single time he talked about Viola and all his feels for her . . . my heart just went out to him. Despite all of the chaos and people trying to bring him down hard, he was always thinking about Viola and wanting to do everything within his power to protect her. Sure, he can make some silly mistakes here and there, but he's there fighting for his life and I can't ask for anymore from the characters. Todd, in particular, was perfect even when flawed.

Then there's my previous, previous Viola. Her and Todd are the unstoppable team. There's no doubt about it because like Todd, Viola is fighting too alongside with him (even when they're apart) and boy does she step up her game in this sequel. Whoa. If you thought Viola was awesome in the first book . . . think again. Also for fans of Viola you'll be happy to know Viola constantly gets her own chapters in this book (yay for that!) so I was really happy about that because I gained some wonderful insight through her own eyes and see how she viewed the world . . . she just rocked.

And, of course, I couldn't help but make a small mention of Davy's character, a nasty boy and the new mayor's son who we briefly meet in the first book. Now let me tell you, he was someone I absolutely hated in the first book and yet there was something so interesting about him too. And, in this book, he shined far more than I ever thought he would. He maybe brutal at times but he is a really misunderstood character and I actually came to love him as he built a slow friendship (as funny as it sounds) with Todd's character. I really felt for him in this one.

Overall, THE ASK AND THE ANSWER was no sequel flop whatsoever. It was utter perfection for me and really sets up an amazing continuation of the series! I'm speechless with this one!

The Rating

5/5 stars