This is, hands down, the best book for younger readers that I have read. As a high school English teacher, I am in contact with teens all day long, and so I have a priviledged access to teens in their everyday lives. This book may well also be the best book written for teenaged boys, because Todd's struggle to be a man, and to come to terms with the mystery of what a girl is, as a different but equal being, goes to the heart of what boys struggle through on their way to becoming respectable and honourable men. Sadly, not all boys make it as far as Todd on this journey, and too many end up more like Davey Prentice. IT is violent, yes, but the violence is healthy: it hurts and hurts and hurts some more. It is not glorified or glamourous, it is real. So many important subjects are broached in this book, and all in the right ways. I read this book to my daughter when she was eleven, and she loved, so girls get it too. It rightly deserves the awards it has won, and because it is fiction, it makes the reality of war accessible to readers who are, thank God, almost completely sheltered from it. It is brilliant from end to end, funny and terribly powerful.

I read this when i was 12 and LOVED IT!!!! Like i say in some of my other reviews i belive 12+ can read this. I just beilve in the fact that each and every kid has a different maturity level. This book has great messages and strong charaters i look up to- even today. Stay true to yourself and you'll never know where life can take you.

It's very violent, gory and describes the gore in detail, and uses language, but it uses 'effing' in place of the word, using the real word once. it may be a little to violent for some, and if you have a weak stomach, don't read it. I'm 13, and I read it, but it might be better for older kids

The Chaos Walking series is a gripping, gritty thrill ride of emotion that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you experience emotion in the way almost no other book can. Patrick Ness takes a great idea and executes it flawlessly, creating a disturbing but highly believeable dystopia. Todd's narrative is endearing, intelligent, and strong as he struggles to realize what it takes to be a man in a world gone mad. Patrick Ness can take a character, make you hate him, make you fear him, and then toss you into a point of view where you can't help but love him. In the case of Davy Prentiss, the Mayor's son, Ness creates a character who is at once corrupted, innocent, lovesick, and hateful. His growing feelings for Todd appear to be more than simple brotherly affection, and you will feel every blush, stomach-drop, and tummy-butterfly that Davy feels as he struggles to decide where his loyalties lie. In conclusion, this series is dark, very dark, but it will take you on a ride that you'll never forget. Though it is definitely not for younger children, I can't help but think that it would be an excellent movie series as well. I eagerly anticipate the third book, and applaud Patrick Ness for creating a series in which I can find barely a flaw.

Please Be Warned, this book is not for the faint hearted. It is truely awsome though. It has loads of killing refrences, but its all like; Your to weak! You can't kill! Your not a man ect. It gets slightly tedious after a while. But there is lots of action, I love the characters, and the whole idea of noise, and new prentiss town, and spackle. Its so original, it just sucks you in. You just can't put it down.

Best book ever

I'm going back and forth as to whether I should rate this iffy or on. I read this book just amonth before I turned 14 and I have to admit it made me quite sick at the end. It's very, very, very violent and bloody with very effective descriptions. If it was a movie it would be rated R or higher. But the point is that it's supposed to make you sick and realize how terrible this world is and why things sould never be this way. And I think it is quite effective in addressing that. Also, there is some swearing, but it's usually "Eff" (spelled that way), although one character does really say it once and there's also the s-word.

So many great points of discussion from genocide, information overload, standing up for what's right, deciding what kind of person you are going to be.