Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking, #3)

 Summary (courtesy of GoodReads):  'War', says the Mayor. 'At last'. 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? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await? But then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge - the electrifying finale to the award-winning "Chaos Walking" trilogy, "Monsters of Men" is a heart-stopping novel about power, survival, and the devastating realities of war.

And here's what I thought:  I'm going to avoid spoilers, so this will be short.  This book was amazing.  When I was reading, my heart would be pounding, and I thought it couldn't get better ... and it did.  If you're familiar with the first two books, be warned that this one picks up right where the second one ended (so if you haven't read #2 for a bit, do a quick skim before you read this one, so you're up on what's happening) and amps up the story.   We have the same characters we've been following:  Todd and Viola (our heroes) and Mayor Prentiss (evil, evil, evil).  And like in the previous books, it's hard to tell if the heroes are going to come out on top in this one, because the situation just keeps getting more intense, and more difficult.

And I'm not telling you any more.   Sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to reveal too many details, or give a spoiler -- and I just can't do that.   What I will tell you is this:  Patrick Ness has a way of writing that completely pulls you in and makes you a slave to the book.  I mean that in the best way.  You get inside the heads of the characters (literally), in a very personal way.   When I started the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, I had to get used to way that Todd expressed himself, but once I became comfortable with that (and it didn't take more than a few pages), the story just took off.   This is a wonderful story, full of emotion, that I can't say enough about.   Every so often, when reading, I'd just be struck by something, and roll it around in my mind for a minute (I love it when that happens).  For example, in this book, one of the Spackle expresses his feelings of loss for his "one in particular."  I love this.  It doesn't matter if your "one in particular" is male, or female -- what matters is the feeling.    This is one of the things that makes Ness' writing so powerful.

If you haven't read these books, I'd strongly recommend picking up the first one, and making sure that you have undisturbed reading time -- I think once you begin, you won't want to stop reading.    The series is:  The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men.

First sentence(s):  "War," says Mayor Prentiss, his eyes glinting.  "At last."
"Shut up," I say. "There ain't no at last about it.  The only one who wants this is you."

Thoughts on the cover:  Full of fire and jumbled words at the bottom, it perfectly reflects the story. 

Where I got this book:  Library