The Ask and the Answer
Reaching the end of their flight in 'The Knife of Never Letting Go', Todd and Viola did not find healing and hope in Haven. They found instead their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss, waiting to welcome them to New Prentisstown. There they are forced into separate lives: Todd to prison, and Viola to a house of healing where her wounds are treated. Soon Viola is swept into the ruthless activities of the Answer, while Todd faces impossible choices when forced to join the mayor's oppressive new regime.
In alternating narratives the two struggle to reconcile their own dubious actions with their deepest beliefs. Torn by confusion and compromise, suspicion and betrayal, can their trust in each other possibly survive?
Costa Book Award for Children's Book (2009), Booklist Top Ten Science Fiction/Fantasy Novels for Youth (2010)
About the Chaos Walking Series
Books in series order
- 1.The Knife of Never Letting Go(2008)
- 2.The Ask and the Answer(2009)
- 3.Monsters of Men(2009)
- +The New World(2010)
- +The Wide, Wide Sea(2009)
Reading age: 14+ years
This series should be read in order.
This dystopian trilogy is centered on Prentisstown boy, Todd Hewitt, and his companion Viola Eade. The two teenagers journey through New World, searching for answers in an oppressive new society, surrounded by a virus that makes all men's thoughts chaotically audible, and pursued by Prentisstown's dangerous and powerful Mayor.