Monsters of Men: a review


Title: Monsters of Men
Series: Chaos Walking (#3)
Author: Patrick Ness
Language: English
Pages: 603








The book
I will try to avoid major spoilers for this book, but there might be minor spoilers for the previous books. The book starts pretty much right where the previous book ends, the Mayor being all hot and bothered about the prospect war. He isn’t creepy at all. The book is told from the perspectives of Viola and Todd, like the previous book, and there is a third perspective added, which was very cool. The book tells the story of the war from the three different perspectives. Todd is with the Mayor, Viola with Mistress Coyle and the third with the Land.

What I thought
There is no coherency, so I tried listing it to make it at least look like I make sense. These are the thoughts I have.

1. OH MY GOD! It was so good. I really, really loved it. Well there’s that out of my system.

2. There is action from start to finish and there is emotion from start to finish. The characters grow so much, Todd and Viola go from being teenagers to becoming a man and a woman. The different perspectives are an interesting way of telling a story, because we get to see everyone’s thoughts and how they see each other.

3. The way war is portrayed is absolutely amazing. We see how war affects people, and how it changes priorities. How it changes your view on people, on how it changes everyone. It’s very hard to explain this in a way that is spoiler free, but essentially Todd’s nature changes the Mayor slightly, and the way that a war works changes how the Todd sees the Mayor and it is really interesting. You start questioning who is right and who is wrong. It’s really icky.

4. I love Todd. He is amazing. He is an outstanding lead character. He is interesting and he grows and his main flaw in the eyes of his superiors and peers is that he can’t kill someone. He is kind, sweet, he wants more than anything to be a man, but he won’t be by the standards of his world, and the wish to be a man is almost heart-wrenching. He feels like he won’t be worthy until he has become a man, and it sort of hurts. He is the only boy left from Prentisstown and all he wants is to be a man, he wants it so badly. He has also had so much shit happen to him, but he still knows how to love. He can love, and it’s a very beautiful part of him.  

5. I love Viola for being amazing and ruthless and a badass. I love her for working hard to do the right thing. She is a great match for Todd because she is willing to do what it takes and she is sweet. She will kill where Todd won’t, obviously not all willy-nilly, but she is willing to if pressed. She is also able to show mercy and kindness, but not necessarily forgiveness.

6. It was an amazing finale.

Final thoughts
It was absolutely stunning and I loved it. It’s beautiful and hard and I cried so hard at the end, and wow. The entire series is absolutely beautiful and absolutely amazing. It’s so complex and wonderful. There are so many questions raised throughout the series. Patrick Ness is an outstanding author. My gushing is now over.