Winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (2008)
Summary
Todd Hewitt is a few months away from his thirteenth birthday, the age at which the boys of Prentisstown become men. He lives in an all-male settlement, the only human group left on New World. All other human settlers were killed by an alien biological weapon which totally wiped out all the females and left any surviving males infected with a germ which makes their thoughts audible to everyone. The noise of other people's emotions and ideas is constant, until one day Todd finds a pocket of silence out in the woods. His foster parents learn of Todd's discovery, and react with horror. With the town's militia banging at their door, they give Todd a bag filled with provisions, his dead mother's diary, and a knife for protection. They cover his frantic escape by making a final stand against the armed men who are searching for him.
Having made it to the apparent safety of the woods, Todd is terrified to come across an alien creature. At first, he is certain that it it one of the terrible creatures who nearly wiped out the humans of New World before finally being defeated themselves. With an even greater shock, however, he realises that it is a girl. She will not speak, but with the townsmen chasing close behind him, Todd saves her from attack and escapes with her through the swamp which marks the borders of Prentisstown. What they find when they break through changes Todd's world-view completely; he must try to discover the truth about Prentisstown whilst escaping as far as he can from its advancing army.
Review
I'm often wary of the "young adult"category, since it tends to produce a lot of lazy and patronising writing, so I was delighted to discover that this is a gripping, intelligent novel. The characters develop realistically and sensitively, within an engaging plot. The mysteries of the story are only slowly revealed, firing up the reader's imagination as we try to interpret the growing evidence faced by Todd about the truth of his town's past.
There are plently of nasty, unpleasant moments here. The recurring figure of the mad priest, Aaron, is almost Rasputin-like in his refusal to die despite terrifying injuries. Young Davy Prentiss, son of the town's eponymous mayor, is unpleasant in a very different way, with his veiled threats of rape towards Todd's friend Viola. None of this is particularly explicit or offensive; Ness has a brilliant talent for understated horror.
The "Noise", Ness's term for the sound of men's audible thoughts and emotions, is handled very well. Rather than providing a direct representation of what someone is thinking, their Noise is often a confused jumble of emotions, words, and sounds. Todd is often caught out by his inability to keep certain words or ideas from appearing to others, but also watches his Noise in order to gain self-understanding. The colours of his noise and the phrases and images that recur there help him to interpret his emotions and to take charge of his state of mind. It is an impressive device which lends itself ideally to a discussion of the transition between youth and adulthood.
The cleverness of this novel doesn't undermine its excitement, either. It's intellectually satisfying but without a single dull moment.
