Started and finished in a day. But peeved the book ended in a series manner where it's like wait.... damnit!
But, I guess I should have known that walking in.
I liked the story well enough. When the book started Todd was an annoying little brat who needs to learn to listen and read the situation. Like why do people act like that?

Trusted Person - It's URGENT YOU DO THIS RIGHT NOW!
Idiot - What? I hear you screaming at me, and I trust you with my life. But, I'm going to pause a beat and second guess you for 5 minutes or until you or we are no longer safe.

Reading it is just a bloody annoying as watching it occur. I thought I might quit right there. But I persevered.

Todd got a little better.

I find it funny the movie UP and this book came out near the same time. I keep imagining Todd as a Russell/Carl mix and Viola is also a bit Russell-ish to Todd's Carl. Then you add in Manchee and the interaction with the cassor. I had to pause and chuckle.
Now, if you've read this you're seeing it too. If you haven't read it but you've seen UP then you see the scene I'm speaking about in the first bit of the book. ( )

Well, this won't be a popular review, but I really did not care for this book. It may be a victim of bad timing as I was more in the mood for light summer reading and this is definitely not that... But sometimes when things are available at the library and are on the list, you take a chance. I listened to this in audio. 2 stars because my friends seem to like it and I might be grouchy... :)

I did not find the main character likable from the start. I felt like the first 10 minutes of the book was him screaming foul language and being an ass about his dog. Not a good way to start for me.

It becomes obvious, of course, later that he loves the dog, but still. Of course, the dog death was horrific. I found Aaron entirely unbelievable as a character and his perpetual survival was overdone by a long shot. I found myself rolling my eyes at the unbelievable overblown misfortune of this boy and Viola. It was so overwhelmingly hopeless, I wasn't even remotely surprised by the ending. Im just surprised he didn't trigger some planetary explosion, but of course that would mean no further books. ( )

I was really impressed by this book. I loved everything about it, even the things I hated. If you can’t push through some misspelled words then this book is not for you. Everyone else, what are you waiting for? This book was crazy. I didn’t like Todd at first, but he got better during the book. Thankfully. I loved his dog Manchee, easily my favorite character. I actually liked all of the characters in this book.

The plot was fantastic as well! From the interesting start to the cliffhanger at the end. Todd has to travel to a completely different town to escape his original town full of crazy, mind-reading men. The book had a nice pace and is always keeping you guessing as to what happens next. ( )

Very rarely do I love and HATE a book as much as I do this one. But, the fact that I hate it is the reason I love it.

The development of the world and the cast of characters was just amazing. It was slow and steady, never giving away enough about someone to let you know who they were.

And I enjoyed the constant reminders that everyone could hear what he was thinking. The reminder as people responded to his thoughts with words, or when he heard someone's Noise and had his own thoughts about it.

The world came alive. And the people - you couldn't help but root for the good and really dislike the bad. I was truly worried whenever the bad people came around, I cried when bad things happened and when there was struggle.

I even cried when there was hope and inspiration to carry on in the face of such loss.

But that's also why I hate the book. I loved the book so much that I hated where it ended, how it ended and what was lost a long the way.

Go team Manchee! If only my dog could talk. I would listen to him tell me he had to poo all day long. ( )

Great book--lousy cliffhanger ending! ( )