Todd Hewitt is captured by the Mayor's army in Haven, renamed New Prentisstown. He is forced to live in the town's clock tower with the previous Mayor, Con Ledger. Ledger explains that Haven discovered a cure for Noise, but Mayor Prentiss (now President Prentiss) has confiscated it for sole use by leaders of New Prentisstown. He has also separated the males and females, and imprisoned all domestic Spackle who live in the town.
Viola awakens in a 'clinic' staffed by female healers for her gunshot wound. She meets Mistress Coyle, the head of the facility, who also has previous political and activist ties. Viola also meets the apprentices Corinne Wyatt and Maddy as she recovers.
Todd is made to work with the enslaved Spackle of New Prentisstown with Davy Prentiss. Todd is disgusted at the treatment of the Spackle, yet Davy is proud of his authority. As the Spackle speak via Noise, cure has been placed into the Spackle's food to prevent communication.
Meanwhile, Viola recovers enough to help Mistress Coyle and begins an apprenticeship as a healer. However, one night Mistress Coyle and other healers disappear. They have led some women out of New Prentisstown to form a resistance movement, reconvened from the time of the Spackle War, known as "The Answer", to carry out bombings in the city.
Davy and Todd receive orders to brand the Spackle with numbered metal bands. During the branding, Davy strangles a Spackle with a band, killing it, to the disgust of Todd. However, Todd continues the task without argument, hoping it will ensure Viola's safety.
One of several bombings occur in town and the Spackle reserve. Todd, trying to redeem himself, saves a Spackle banded with the number 1017, who is ungrateful. Mayor Prentiss sets up "The Ask", a counter-intelligence unit. He promotes Todd and Davy into this unit, where New Prentisstown residents are captured and tortured for information on The Answer. The next morning, Viola finds that the clinic is almost completely empty. The rest have gone to join the Answer. Mistress Coyle returns to recruit Viola, who feels forced to join, knowing about Mayor Prentiss' tortures.
Viola eventually participates in an attack. An older teenager, Lee, befriends her. He is intent on avenging his family, who have been taken by The Ask.
A bombing occurs outside of town, and Todd finds that all the Spackle were killed in a mass genocide - the only Spackle to survive is 1017, who attacks Todd before leaving. 1017 can freely use his Noise and has been starving himself to prevent taking the cure. Horrified at the genocide, the perpetrator still unknown, the Mayor teaches Todd a chant that calms his Noise.
Todd is surprised to find that he and Davy now share a friendship. Davy returns Todd's mother's stolen diary. Meanwhile, Viola learns of a planned bombing in New Prentisstown that could harm Todd. Viola and Lee arrive at the tower to rescue him. Noticing that there is something darker to his personality, Viola still urges Todd to leave with them, warning that the attack will come from the south. Ledger then appears, armed, revealing his secret loyalty to Prentiss. While threatening them, he finds a self-arming bomb in Viola's bag. Ledger attempts to throw it away, but it explodes, killing him and injuring Todd, Viola and Lee.
Prentiss captures the three. Viola is interrogated and tortured, with Todd watching from a soundproof room. Mayor Prentiss wants to know where The Answer will attack from, drowning Viola, who refuses to answer. Unable to watch, Todd screams that the Answer is attacking from the south. Prentiss thanks Todd, and leaves to organise his army. Todd formulates a plan to stop Prentiss with the help of Ivan and other personnel.
Ivan and the guards agree to help Todd rescue Lee and Viola. Lee hurries back to the Answer, while the others go to stop Prentiss. At the cathedral, Prentiss disables the entire group with his Noise and captures Viola. Prentiss still wants Todd to join him despite his betrayal; he reveals that he has never taken the cure, instead training his Noise via the chant to silence, which also allows him to control others with his mind. Davy arrives to tell his father that the Answer army is coming, and requires orders. A second scout ship, like the one Viola crashed in, then flies in near New Prentisstown. In desperation, Todd holds Davy at gunpoint, threatening to kill him if Prentiss does not release Viola. Prentiss drops Viola and fires his gun, killing Davy. Davy reveals that he had accidentally shot Ben, Todd's guardian. He begs for forgiveness but dies before Todd can answer.
In anger, Todd uses his own Noise as a weapon with Viola's name to overcome Prentiss. He ties him up in the cathedral while Viola goes to meet with the scout ship. A horn sounds to warn of an army of Spackle marching towards the city, seeking revenge for the genocide. With no alternative, Todd releases Prentiss to enlist help. Released from his bonds, Prentiss claims that what has come to New World is what men are born for: war.
Reception
The Ask and the Answer received largely positive reviews from critics. Publishers Weekly praised the brilliant cast, and believed it to be "among the best YA science fiction novels of the year", including it in their best books of 2009,[1] while Anita Barnes Lowen from Children's Literature labelled the book "a stunning not-to-be-missed science fiction adventure."[2]The Independent on Sunday said that "... it is every bit as ambitious as the first book but the ambition is easily matched by the execution, with powerful prose and tight plotting that pull the reader on at a terrifying speed."[3]
Kirkus Reviews noted that the plot was "breathless... with heartbreakingly real characters"[2] and the Costa Book Awards 2009 judges recognised the novel as "a strikingly original and compelling work."[4]
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author of the book by The Guardian newspaper, which established it in 1965 and inaugurated it in 1967. It was a lifetime award in that previous winners were not eligible. At least from 2000 the prize was £1,500. The prize was apparently discontinued after 2016, though no formal announcement appears to have been made.
Jon McGregor is a British novelist and short story writer. In 2002, his first novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize, making him then the youngest-ever contender. His second and fourth novels were longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006 and 2017 respectively. In 2012, his third novel, Even the Dogs, was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award. The New York Times has labelled him a "wicked British writer".
Siobhan Dowd was a British writer and activist. The last book she completed, Bog Child, posthumously won the 2009 Carnegie Medal from the professional librarians, recognising the year's best book for children or young adults published in the UK.
Here Lies Arthur is a young-adult novel by Philip Reeve, published by Scholastic in 2007. Set in fifth or sixth century Britain and the Anglo-Saxon invasion, it features a girl who participates in the deliberate construction of legendary King Arthur during the man's lifetime, orchestrated by a bard. Reeve calls it a back-creation: not a genuine historical novel as it is not based on actual specific events; rather it is "back-created" from the legends, giving them a "realistic" origin.
Ally Kennen is a British author of adventure novels for children and teens. Some of her books have been marketed as thrillers and they may be classed as horror fiction.
S. F. Said is a British children's writer.
The Knife of Never Letting Go is a young adult science fiction novel written by British American author Patrick Ness. It was published by Walker Books on 5 May 2008. It is the first book in the Chaos Walking series, followed by The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men. The story follows Todd Hewitt, a 12-year-old boy who runs away from Prentisstown, a town where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts, after learning of a secret about its past.
Patrick Ness FRSL is an American-British author, journalist, lecturer, and screenwriter. Born in the United States, Ness moved to London and holds dual citizenship. He is best known for his books for young adults, including the Chaos Walking (2008-2010) trilogy and A Monster Calls (2011).
Kid Glove Killer is a 1942 American crime film, starring Van Heflin as a forensic scientist investigating the murder of a mayor. The B film, the feature-length directorial debut of Fred Zinnemann, was an expanded version of the 1938 Crime Does Not Pay short subject "They're Always Caught".
Bog Child is a historical novel by Siobhan Dowd published by David Fickling (UK) and Random House Children's Books (US) on 9 September 2008, more than a year after her death. Set in the 1980s amid the backdrop of the Troubles of Northern Ireland, it features an 18-year-old boy who must study for exams but experiences "his imprisoned brother's hunger strike, the stress of being a courier for the provisional IRA, and dreams of a murdered girl whose body he discovered in a bog." In flashback and dream there are elements of the murdered girl's prehistoric or protohistoric life and death.
Monsters of Men is a young adult science fiction novel by Patrick Ness, published by Walker Books in May 2010. It is the third book of the Chaos Walking trilogy inaugurated two years earlier by The Knife of Never Letting Go. Walker's U.S. division Candlewick Press published hardcover and audiobook editions within the calendar year.
The Help is a historical fiction novel by American author Kathryn Stockett published by Penguin Books in 2009. The story is about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s.
Chaos Walking is a young adult science fiction series written by American-British novelist Patrick Ness. It is set in a dystopian world where all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called Noise. The series is named after a line in the first book: "The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking." The series consists of a trilogy of novels and three short stories.
Into Temptation is a 2009 independent drama film written and directed by Patrick Coyle, and starring Jeremy Sisto, Kristin Chenoweth, Brian Baumgartner, Bruce A. Young and Amy Matthews. It tells the story of a sex worker (Chenoweth) who confesses to a Catholic priest (Sisto) that she plans to kill herself on her birthday. The priest attempts to find and save her, and in doing so he plunges himself into a darker side of society.
A Monster Calls is a low fantasy novel written for young adults by Patrick Ness illustrated by Jim Kay and published by Walker in 2011. Set in present-day England, it features a boy who struggles to cope with the consequences of his mother's illness. He is repeatedly visited in the middle of the night by a monster who tells stories. Dowd was terminally ill with cancer when she came up with the idea for the story, and died before she could write it.
Life After Life is a 2013 novel by Kate Atkinson. It is the first of two novels about the Todd family. The second, A God in Ruins, was published in 2015. Life After Life garnered acclaim from critics.
Chaos Walking is a 2021 American dystopian science-fiction action-thriller film directed by Doug Liman and written by Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford. It is based on Ness's science fiction trilogy Chaos Walking, adapting its first book, 2008's The Knife of Never Letting Go. It stars Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas and David Oyelowo. It follows a young man who lives in a dystopian world without women, where all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in streams of images, words and sounds, called "Noise". When a woman crash-lands on the planet, he protects her from danger.
A God in Ruins is Kate Atkinson's ninth novel, published in 2015. The main character, Teddy Todd is the younger brother of Ursula Todd, the protagonist in Atkinson's 2013 novel, Life After Life. Atkinson calls it the "companion piece" rather than a sequel to the earlier novel. The first book spans half a century, including World War II; the second is set entirely within it. It won the Costa Book Award for Novel in 2015.
Out of Shadows is a 2010 children's historical novel by Jason Wallace, published by Andersen Press on 28 January 2010. Set in 1980s Zimbabwe, the story follows white teenager Robert Jacklin at a prestigious boarding school as he confronts bullying, anti-black racism, his own morality and the political instability of the time. His debut novel, it is partly inspired by Wallace's own experiences attending a boarding school in Zimbabwe after the civil war. The novel was rejected by publishers one hundred times before being published by Andersen Press. The novel received favourable reviews and won the 2010 Costa Book Award for Children's Book, the 2011 Branford Boase Award and the 2011 UKLA Book Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2010 Booktrust Teenage Prize and the 2011 Carnegie Medal.
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