Age: High School-Adult

"Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives."
-Goodreads synopsis

Much like Todd running across the landscape, this book never stops. It is an action-heavy page-turner, akin to popular books like Hunger Games and Mortal Instruments. It may have missed the success of these books because the main character has an unusual dialect that takes some time to get used to and the length may be daunting to some readers. Otherwise the writing is phenomenal and gripping, the twists are explosive

Spoiler

(but we all knew that Prentisstown killed all the women, right?)

, and Ness provides a deeper layer by looking at colonization and the exploitation of religion.

Plot synopsis:

Spoiler

Although Todd has been told that there are no more women on their planet, he finds a girl, Viola, hidden in the swamp near his home. His step-fathers tell Todd to run away with his loyal, talking dog Manchee but the leaders of the town don't want Todd to run away. And so begins the tiring game of cat-and-mouse that Todd, the girl, and Manchee embark on, unveiling the lies that Todd grew up on: women's thoughts cannot be read like men, this was a naturally occurring phenomenon of the planet they colonized and not unleashed by the natives of the world, anyone that left Prentistown were executed by neighboring villages because Prentisstown murdered all of the women. All the way, Todd and co. are being pursued by a blood-thirsty zealot who progressively loses parts of his face to animals, and a ruthless army murdering and pillaging as they approach the capitol city. Todd is given multiple chances to kill his pursuers but cannot force himself to take another life, no matter how much they deserve it. Oh, except for the precious fisherman who just so happened to be a native of the land. Yeah, Todd kills him. Todd and Viola finally makes it to the capitol after Viola kills the melting-faced preacher only to find that it is deserted and the army has already taken it over. THE END. Also, caution to dog-lovers because the true hero of the book, Manchee, gets killed at the hands of the preacher and it is extremely hard to read.