SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: The Ocean Was Our Sky
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 10/17/1971
WEBSITE: http://www.patrickness.com/
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 311
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/24/featuresreviews.guardianreview1
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born October 17, 1971, in Alexandria, VA; immigrated to England, 1999; naturalized British citizen, 2005; married, 2006; husband’s name Marc.
EDUCATION:University of Southern California, B.A. (English literature), 1993.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, children’s author, educator, and screenwriter. Former corporate writer in Los Angeles, CA; freelance writer, beginning c. 1997. Oxford University, Oxford, England, instructor in creative writing for three years; Booktrust writer-in-residence, 2009.
AWARDS:London Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and U.K. Booktrust Teenage Prize, both 2008, Branford Boase Award shortlist and Carnegie Medal shortlist, both 2009, and Best Book for Young Adults designation, American Library Association (ALA), all for The Knife of Never Letting Go; Costa Children’s Award, 2009, Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2010, Booktrust Teenage Prize shortlist, and ALA Best Book for Young Adults designation, all for The Ask and the Answer; Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist and Carnegie Medal, both 2011, both for Monsters of Men; Galaxy National Book Award, 2011, and Carnegie Medal, 2012, both for A Monster Calls illustrated by Jim Kay; ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults designation, 2014, for More than This; ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults designation, Carnegie Medal shortlist, and Bookseller YA Book Prize shortlist, all 2016, all for The Rest of Us Just Live Here; Red House Book Award; Jugendliterature Preis.
WRITINGS
Also author of series prequel “The New World.”
A Monster Calls was adapted to film, 2017; the “Chaos Walking” series is being adapted to film.
SIDELIGHTS
A two-time winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal, Patrick Ness combines fantasy with science fiction in his award-winning novel The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first installment in his “Chaos Walking” trilogy of dystopian thrillers aimed at a young-adult audience. Ness continues his focus on a teen readership in the provocative and highly acclaimed novels A Monster Calls, More than This, and The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
The son of a U.S. Army drill sergeant, Ness was born in Virginia, but moved to Hawai’i months later. When he was six years old his family moved again, this time to Washington State, where he remained until enrolling at the University of Southern California. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature, Ness worked as a corporate writer and honed his fiction writing. Two years after publishing his first short story in Genre magazine, he moved to London, England, to join his future husband, whom he had met while vacationing in Great Britain. He began writing fiction full time in the late 1990s and his first published novel, The Crash of Hennington, was released in 2003. Topics about Which I Know Nothing, a book of short stories, followed before Ness turned his attention to teen readers.
In The Knife of Never Letting Go Ness takes readers to Prentisstown, a rural community on a newly colonized planet in which no women seem to exist. Prentisstown has another odd characteristic: every thought of every resident—human and animal—is audible to all, resulting in a total lack of privacy and the unceasing, overbearing mental cacophony called Noise. At twelve years of age, Todd Hewitt is the youngest resident of Prentisstown, and he is almost old enough to undergo his “initiation.” When Todd finds a place that makes him immune from the Noise, his adoptive parents help him escape from the town. While pursued by the army of Mayor Prentiss, the preteen discovers the wreckage of a spaceship in a local swamp and finds a young girl named Viola, who is hiding in the woods nearby. Although he assumed that all women have been killed by the Noise, Todd realizes that the actual history of Prentisstown is far more horrific and far more deadly.
In Kliatt Paula Rohrlick called The Knife of Never Letting Go a “haunting page-turner” featuring “edge-of-your-seat chase scenes” and “moments of both anguish and triumph.” In Horn Book Claire E. Gross cited Ness’s “subtle world-building” and his ability to create relationships between characters that are “nuanced” and feature “considerable emotional depth.” Calling The Knife of Never Letting Go a “troubling, unforgettable [series] opener,” Booklist critic Ian Chipman asserted that Ness’s “cliffhanger ending is as effective as a shot to the gut.”
Pursued by the army of Prentisstown in The Ask and the Answer, Todd and Viola arrive at the city of Haven, but they are captured by the maniacal Mayor Prentiss and the “Ask,” a heavily armed military unit. Todd must now aid Prentiss’s scheme to create the perfect society, even as this scheme begins to threaten his sanity. Meanwhile, Viola is sent to a female compound where she joins the “Answer,” a loosely formed resistance group that selectively bombs area targets. Ness alters his storytelling approach in The Ask and the Answer, using the alternating voices of Todd and Viola to narrate this installment in his “Chaos Walking” saga.
In Publishers Weekly a contributor praised The Ask and the Answer as a “grim and beautifully written sequel,” noting that it prompts readers to question “the nature of evil and humanity.” Ness’s “Chaos Walking” trilogy “continues to develop a fascinating world,” wrote Horn Book critic Gross, “and its fully formed characters and conflicts draw attention to difficult issues with a rare, unblinking candor.”
Warfare erupts in Monsters of Men, the conclusion to Ness’s “Chaos Walking” trilogy. As another wave of colonists arrives on New World aboard a scout ship, Mayor Prentiss’s army engages in a deadly battle with the Spackle, an indigenous species. Todd and Viola attempt to broker a peace with the Sky, the leader of the Spackle, but they face continued resistance from the leaders of both the Ask and the Answer. Into this mix, Ness introduces a third narrator, 1017, an individual known to his people as the Return and who poignantly recounts the enslavement of the Spackle. Just when peace seems attainable, Prentiss hijacks the scout ship and sets the forests ablaze, killing the Sky. The Return, now filled with hate, prepares the Spackle for battle, leading to a final, violent confrontation.
Describing Ness’s “Chaos Walking” trilogy as “remarkable,” London Times contributor Amanda Craig deemed Monsters of Men “an intensely moral, thoughtful work.” Also praising Ness’s concluding series novel, Jonathan Hunt wrote in Horn Book that it presents a “timely examination of human nature, human society, and the terrible costs of violence.”
Ness’s young-adult novel A Monster Calls had its origins in a story conceived by the late British writer Siobhan Dowd and offered to Ness by an editor at Walker Books. In the novel, readers meet a young man whose life seems to be spinning out of control until he finds a way to make sense of things. Conor O’Malley, a sensitive and lonely thirteen-year-old, is bullied at school and terrified at the prospect of losing his mother, who has been diagnosed with cancer. In nightly dreams, Conor is visited by a monster that takes the form of a giant yew tree and tells him three folkloric tales. Then the monster demands that the lad shares his story, one that reveals the truth behind this long-running nightmare.
Described as “heart-wrenching and thought-provoking” by Horn Book contributor Cynthia K. Ritter, A Monster Calls inspired Booklist contributor Chipman to praise Ness for drawing his story to “a resolution that is revelatory in its obviousness, beautiful in its execution, and fearless in its honesty.” A Publishers Weekly critic wrote that Conor’s story “tackles the toughest of subjects by refusing to flinch, meeting the ugly truth about life head-on with compassion, bravery, and insight.” A highlight of A Monster Calls, according to a Kirkus Reviews writer, is the black-and-white artwork of Jim Kay, which earned the illustrator a Kate Greenaway award. Kay’s art “surrounds the text,” noted the critic, “softly caressing it in quiet moments and in others rushing toward the viewer with a nightmarish intensity.”
In Ness’s More than This a posthumous narrator “brilliantly plays with contrasts: life and death, privacy and exposure, guilt and innocence,” according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. Teenager Seth vividly remembers drowning, but upon waking he finds himself in his childhood home in England, utterly alone, wrapped in bandages. Bizarrely, Seth is still very much corporeal; he feels cold, warmth, and a hunger that forces him to scavenge for food. Wondering if he has entered a personal hell, the teen eventually meets two other boys. Running from the Driver, a mysterious, evil being, the three must work together to discover the circumstances of their fates. A Publishers Weekly writer noted of More than This that “Ness’s exploration of big questions … will provide solace for the right readers.” As Hunt asserted in Horn Book, the author “is not only a good storyteller but an interesting prose stylist, and his latest effort is as provocative as ever.”
A satirical look at the young-adult fantasy-adventure genre, The Rest of Us Just Live Here “celebrates the everyday heroism of teens doing the hard work of growing up,” according to a writer in Kirkus Reviews. Mikey has little time to befriend the “indie kids” at his high school, those extraordinary classmates who keep the town safe from invading vampires, zombies, and other supernatural creatures. With graduation approaching, Mikey is also dealing with his father’s alcoholism, his sister’s eating disorder, his struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and his crush on his best friend. When Mikey’s pal Jared reveals an incredible secret, Ness’s plotlines diverge in “delightfully constructed ways,” according to Joy Court in School Librarian.
Shortlisted for the United Kingdom’s prestigious Carnegie Medal, The Rest of Us Just Live Here also garnered positive reviews. In Booklist, Lexi Walters Wright praised the story for evoking “a polished, lifelike world where the mundane moments are just as captivating as the extraordinary.” “While Ness packs his pages with wit … , there’s plenty of emotional heft in his turning of the genre tables,” noted Jen Doll in the New York Times Book Review. In The Rest of Us Just Live Here “he reminds us that it’s not a choice to be a chosen one,” Doll added, “but it is in everyone’s power to be a hero, by caring about others, by fighting to become your own truest self.”
Adam Thorn, the protagonist of Ness’s novel Release, is a seventeen-year-old gay teenager who confronts multiple interpersonal struggles as he learns to cope with the demands of his life. He lives, works, and goes to school in a relatively small town where he must deal with his homophobic parents. Raised in an evangelical household, his father is a minister and his brother a particularly pious member of the congregation. Covering one day in Adam’s life, the novel focuses on what happens to him during a single Saturday that is probably the most significant, defining day of his life.
Many of Adam’s activities of the day are mundane. He goes for a run, works at his job at a store, has lunch with his best friend, and spends some time with his boyfriend. Other events of the day have the potential to be life-changing. He finds out that his best friend Angela is moving to the Netherlands for her last year of school. He has an uncomfortable encounter with his boss, who has been sexually harassing him for some time. He recognizing the futility of still holding feelings for his ex. Perhaps most importantly, the always-tense relationship with his religious family comes to a crisis point. While all this is going on in the real world, the ghost of a murdered girl, killed by her meth-addict boyfriend, awakens and sets out to find revenge. Her story parallels Adam’s as her existence also undergoes profound changes.
“Adam is immensely likeable and his story is hilarious, gripping, and viciously insightful throughout,” commented Lisa A. Hazlett in a Voice of Youth Advocates review. A Kirkus Reviews writer called the book “Literary, illuminating, and stunningly told.” Booklist reviewer Maggie Reagan concluded that Release is a “painful, magical gem of a novel that, even when it perplexes, will rip the hearts right out of its readers.”
Ness reverses the story from a familiar literary classic in And the Ocean Was Our Sky. With the structure of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick at its base, the novel tells the story of Bathsheba, a young whale who lives in a complex underwater community of whales. Bathsheba has become a member of a larger crew of whales, working as an apprentice to Captain Alexandra. The group hunts the men who sail on the world’s oceans, much like the men themselves spend time searching for whales. She and the other crew members are particularly interested in finding the much-hated Toby Wick, a man who sails in a white ship and who has committed multiple atrocities and much violence against the whale population. As the whales search for Wick, however, Bathsheba begins to question the intense hatred and obsession that compels the ocean-borne hunters to maintain their quest for revenge against Wick.
The novel is an “otherworldly myth . . . that feels eerily real,” observed Justin Barisich, writing in BookPage. A Kirkus Reviews writer called it “Wrenching, dark, and powerful–no fluke, considering its model. School Library Journal reviewer Emma Carbone called And the Ocean Was Our Sky an “excellent, stirring counterpoint to the original text, rife with questions about the inexorable nature of belief and violence.”
Ness enjoys the challenge of writing for a young-adult audience. The typical teen reader “is interested in a guileless, fresh, first-time-we-talked-about-it way,” he remarked to a London Independent interviewer. “What a great liberation that is. And teenagers, if you respect them, will follow you a lot further than adults will, without fear of being a genre that they may not like or have been told not to like. They just want a story.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2008, Ian Chipman, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 97; August 1, 2009, Ian Chipman, review of The Ask and the Answer, p. 66; July 1, 2010, Ian Chipman, review of Monsters of Men, p. 62; November 15, 2010, Michael Cart, interview with Ness, p. 42; July 1, 2011, Ian Chipman, review of A Monster Calls, p. 52; January 1, 2012, Ian Chipman, interview with Ness, p. 111; August 1, 2013, Daniel Kraus, review of More than This, p. 80; November 1, 2013, Katharine Fronk, review of The Crane Wife, p. 22; July 1, 2015, Lexi Walters Wright, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 59; July 1, 2017, Maggie Reagan, review of Release, p. 52.
BookPage, October, 2017, Jill Ratzan, review of Release, p. 27; September, 2018, Justin Barisich, review of And the Ocean Was Our Sky, p. 27.
Bookseller, March 4, 2011, Caroline Horn, profile of Ness, p. 23.
Books for Keeps, September, 2013, Geraldine Brennan, profile of Ness.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, November, 2011, Karen Coats, review of A Monster Calls, p. 161; October, 2015, Karen Coats, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 105.
Daily Mail (London, England), May 6, 2011, Sally Morris, review of A Monster Calls, p. 58.
Financial Times, April 26, 2008, James Lovegrove, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 19.
Guardian (London, England), June 14, 2008, Frank Cottrell Boyce, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 14; September 27, 2008, Julia Eccleshare, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 14; May 7, 2011, Frank Cottrell Boyce, review of A Monster Calls, p. 14; April 19, 2013, Ursula K. Le Guin, review of The Crane Wife.
Horn Book, November-December, 2008, Claire E. Gross, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 712; September-October, 2008, Claire E. Gross, review of The Ask and the Answer, p. 570; November-December, 2010, Jonathan Hunt, review of Monsters of Men, p. 99; September-October, 2011, Cynthia K. Ritter, review of A Monster Calls, p. 93; November-December, 2013, Jonathan Hunt, review of More than This, p. 101; September-October, 2015, Shoshana Flax, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 112; September-October, 2017, review of Release, p. 103.
Independent (London, England), May 10, 2011, review of A Monster Calls, p. 18; June 23, 2010, Nicolette Jones, profile of Ness; June 24, 2011, interview with Ness, p. 22.
Independent on Sunday (London, England), May 2, 2010, profile of Ness, p. 38.
Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2008, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go; August 15, 2009, review of The Ask and the Answer; August 1, 2010, review of Monsters of Men; July 15, 2011, review of A Monster Calls; September 1, 2013, review of More than This; December 15, 2013, review of The Crane Wife; July 15, 2017, review of Release; June 15, 2018, review of And the Ocean Was Our Sky.
Kliatt, September, 2008, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 18.
New York Times Book Review, October 16, 2011, Jessica Bruder, review of A Monster Calls, p. 18; November 8, 2015, Jen Doll, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 35.
Publishers Weekly, August 31, 2009, review of The Ask and the Answer, p. 59; August 2, 2010, review of Monsters of Men, p. 46; June 20, 2011, review of A Monster Calls, p. 54; July 8, 2013, review of More than This, p. 90; August 3, 2015, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 63; July 3, 2017, review of Release, p. 78; December 4, 2017, review of Release, p. S101; August 6, 2018, review of And the Ocean Was Our Sky, p. 74.
School Librarian, autumn, 2015, Joy Court, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 184; autumn, 2017, Lizzie Ryder, review of Release, p. 190.
School Library Journal, November, 2008, Megan Honig, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 133; January, 2010, Vicki Reutter, review of The Ask and the Answer, p. 110; September, 2010, Eric Norton, review of Monsters of Men, p. 159; September, 2011, Krista Welz, review of A Monster Calls, p. 164; June, 2014, Amanda Shiavulli, review of More than This, p. 68; September, 2015, Sunnie Lovelace, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 170; August, 2018, Emma Carbone, review of And the Ocean Was Our Sky, p. 76.
Sunday Telegraph (London, England), April 10, 2005, Patrick Ness, “It’s Great to Be British … at Last,” p. 5.
Sunday Times (London, England), May 22, 2011, Nicolette Jones, review of A Monster Calls, p. 42.
Times (London, England), November 22, 2008, Amanda Craig, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 15; May 22, 2010, Amanda Craig, review of Monsters of Men, p. 8; May 14, 2011, Amanda Craig, review of A Monster Calls, p. 25.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 2011, Laurie Vaughan, review of A Monster Calls, p. 407; October, 2013, Barbara Allen, review of More than This, p. 85; December, 2015, Samantha Godbey, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 73; August, 2017, Lisa A. Hazlett, review of Release, p. 75.
ONLINE
Booktopia, http://www.booktopia.com.au/ (May 30, 2018), Bronwyn Eley, “Patrick Ness: ‘Anybody Can Writer a Book but Only Authors End Them,” profile of Patrick Ness.
Booktrust website, http://www.booktrust.org.uk/ (October 1, 2011), Madelyn Travis, interview with Ness; (October 1, 2011) “Patrick Ness and Jim Kay Answer Our Questions about Their Latest Novel A Monster Calls.”
Film in Revolt, http://www.filminrevolt.org/ (May 12, 2018), interview with Patrick Ness.
Guardian Online (London, England), https://www.theguardian.com/ (August 29, 2015), Linda Buckley-Archer, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
Patrick Ness website, http://patrickness.com (October 3,2018).
Publishers Weekly Online, http://www.publishersweekly.com/ (June 23, 2011), Julia Eccleshare, interview with Ness and Denise Johnstone-Burt.
Readings website, http://www.readings.com.au/ (February 15, 2010), Andrew McDonald, interview with Ness.
Walker Books website, http://www.walker.co.uk/ (February 1, 2017), autobiographical essay by Ness.*
ABOUT ME
Patrick Ness photpI’m Patrick Ness. I claim three states in America as my home (as Americans are wont to do): I was born in Virginia, my first memories are Hawaiian, and I went to junior high and high school in Washington. Then I lived in California for college (at USC) and moved to the United Kingdom in 1999, where I’ve lived (mostly in London) ever since.
I’ve written nine books: 2 novels for adults (The Crash of Hennington and The Crane Wife), 1 short story collection for adults (Topics About Which I Know Nothing) and 6 novels for young adults (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, Monsters of Men, A Monster Calls, More Than This and The Rest of Us Just Live Here).
For these books, I’ve won the Carnegie Medal twice, the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Red House Book Award, the Jugendliteratur Preis, the UKLA Award, the Booktrust Teenage Prize and the fabulous, fabulous, fabulous Jim Kay also won the Greenaway for his illustrations in A Monster Calls (so buy that version, would you?).
I write screenplays as well, including for the movie version of A Monster Calls starring Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver and Felicity Jones, out January 2017.
I love the Decemberists, Peter Carey and A&W Cream Soda. I dislike onions. Intensely.
Patrick Ness: “Anybody can write a book but only authors end them.”
by Bronwyn Eley |May 30, 2018 Share:Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestmail
patrick ness
“Anybody can write a book but only authors end them.”
These were the words that had Booktopians Sarah McDuling and John Purcell fall into an awe-like wonder over the man sitting before them. Patrick Ness, bestselling author of A Monster Calls (now a major film) and the Chaos Walking series (also heading to the big screen) came by for a little chat about his upcoming book And the Ocean Was Our Sky.
“The book started as a joke discussion between me and Jim Kay,” says Patrick. “I just said, completely off hand, ‘what if Moby Dick was told by the whale?’, because it would be really different.”
Based on Moby Dick, which tells the story of one man’s quest to avenge the whale that ‘reaped’ his leg, And the Ocean Was Our Sky focuses on a different point-of-view: that of the whale.
Patrick deals with the idea of who owns the truth and, more importantly, who owns the story, in this latest book. “I love the idea that the whale could tell the story,” says Patrick. “It would be just as true and completely different. So where does ‘the truth’ rest? Does it land in some kind of nexus of the two? That’s where it started and it got weirder and weirder from there.”
This idea of interchangeable truth is all through Ness’ work. “I don’t intend it,” he says. “Looking back, it’s clearly a preoccupation of mine.”
It was fantastic to talk to this bestselling author about what makes a writer and what writing means to him. “Authors should be grumpy because there’s a sort-of dissatisfaction with the world and wanting to figure it out,” says Patrick. “You’re grumpy about something and there’s an itch and a novel is a great scratching of an itch.”
“Ideas don’t have an ego. They’re good, they’re bad, they work, they don’t, it doesn’t matter where they come from.” – Patrick Ness
Ness’ other hit titles include the Chaos Walking series, set on a colony planet where almost all the women have been killed by a virus. All those living on the planet can hear one another’s thoughts in a stream of words, images and sounds – called “Noise”. Protagonist Todd Hewitt stumbles across a girl who might hold answers to this new world’s many mysteries.
patrick ness
The series is heading to the big screen, under director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow), starring Spiderman’s Tom Holland and Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Daisy Ridley.
So needless to say that Patrick Ness is one busy man!
Have a listen to our full podcast interview with Patrick below:
Interview with Patrick Ness / When a Monster Calls
May 12, 2018 by Film in Revolt
Patrick Ness is the best-selling and multiple award-winning author of the Chaos Walking Trilogy, A Monster Calls and The Rest of Us Just Live Here and many more. He also wrote the screenplay for the movie adaption of A Monster Calls, a film that carries the same charm, emotion and complexity of the novel.
Ness has been my favourite author since I read A Monster Calls in my first year of high school. His writing style and the way he tells a story is truly unique and special. I was thrilled, although very nervous, to talk with him at the Sydney Writers’ Festival after his panel discussion, Writing for YA Books and Film. The interview was great fun and Ness was a wonderful person to talk to, and during the day it was evident how much he appreciates his readers. I am extremely grateful for the time I had to chat with him, and certainly, have a lot to take away from this interview. His words and advice are inspirational and invaluable for young novel-writers and screenwriters alike.
The story of A Monster Calls is based on the original idea by Siobhan Dowd. What is most rewarding about seeing the story go from the original idea to what is transformed on the big screen?
Honestly, it just feels like it’s luck, you know. Because all I really wanted to do was hold a book in my hand. Like I said in the sessions today, the idea there would ever be a movie of it seemed ridiculous. So, it just feels like the best kind of luck, I’m really happy. And to think that I sat in a room by myself and made up most of the stuff based on Siobhan’s ideas and Jim’s [Kay] illustrations, and then out it comes in this big, massive, colourful and wonderful version. I just can’t believe my luck.
What challenges did you find when writing the screenplay of A Monster Calls, and what did you enjoy the most about the process?
It’s a very different kind of storytelling. That’s the good challenge, that’s what I did enjoy the most – learning stuff. I always want to keep learning and keep growing. I suppose that screenwriting is so specific, and so you have to do a tonne with very few words. And that is almost the opposite of what novel writing is. It’s all about the best crystallisation of a thought, or a scene, or a line, and keeping it as short and as powerful as possible. It’s a good discipline to learn, I think. It’s not bad for writers. It’s a good one to try your hand at.
Another one of your books, The Knife of Never Letting Go, is currently in the works for a film adaption. When you wrote these books did you consider the possibility of them ever becoming films?
Honestly, it’s a hope rather than an expectation. You think, ‘it could be fun but it’s never going to happen’. That feels to me like the healthiest way to do it because the chance is so small. Gosh. Yeah, gosh – I’ll say a very mild, mild gosh. I swear way worse than that but I’ll say gosh.
There seems to be a special message for young readers in your books. Is this your intention in the early stages of writing and do you think it’s important to represent the authentic voice of young people in books and film?
Well, it’s definitely not the intention when I start writing. What I’m doing most is trying to pay attention to the story that I want to tell. My theory is that if I tell that story as truthfully as possible and really responding to the joy I’m finding in it, then I’m doing that for a reason. The reason is the thing that I’m concerned about. It’s the message, for lack of a better word. I tell the story first, and then I look back and go ‘Ah, that’s what I was meaning to say’. Genuinely, it’s sort of a backwards process for me, because I don’t want to preach, you know. I don’t want it to be a sermon. I read far too many preachy books when I was a kid and I didn’t like them. I think if I can tell the story first, everything I care about is going to be in there, including trying to represent what young people really feel. Not what you think they should feel, but what they’re really feeling. That to me is the best thing fiction can do.
What advice would you give to young writers?
Are you a young writer?
Yes!
Yeah, that’s good! The one thing I always say, and I really mean this, is to write a book you want to read yourself. It’s because so many people don’t. They think, this was a hit so I better copy that. Or this is what YA books, quote un-quote, look like, so it better look like that. Or you know, these vampire books are popular so I better write one of those (they’re still popular somehow). But nobody was looking for the first Harry Potter. They really, really, weren’t. So, write a book you just cannot wait to get back to everyday, and people are going to sense that enthusiasm.
What film and/or book made an impact on your life when you were younger?
Probably lots of films. There were lots of films and books. Several years ago I read a book called The Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. It’s very obscure, and it was officially too old for me. Yeah, it was outside of my ‘official reading age’. So, I’m a big believer in reading inappropriate books, to reach for something that might be way too old for you, and you might not understand all of it, but, I’m a big champion of that. Reach, reach when you read, and see what happens. If you hate it, put it down. If you don’t understand it put it down. But sometimes you might find something that kind of explodes the world for you and shows you what it can be. That was Jitterbug Perfume for me.
How do you motivate yourself to write?
Well, it’s my job [laughs]. I just love it, and I feel lucky to be able to do it. I’m very goal orientated as a person anyway, so I try to use that to my advantage. I’m goal oriented rather than time oriented, for example. So I try to break it down into goals for the day, like a thousand words or three chapters revised, that kind of stuff. Nothing too huge, but also nothing too small, so it accumulates quite quickly. It’s just trying to minimise my weak parts and maximise my strong parts, the things that I’m good at. Maximise those, and try to minimise being overwhelmed, kind of thing.
What does the future hold for you?
Well, I’ve written another movie which I hope starts shooting in July called I’m His Ghost, fingers crossed. I’m working on a couple TV projects which I hope come to fruition. First up I’ve got a new book out in September called And The Ocean Was Our Sky. It’s fully illustrated by an Australian illustrator. So have a look out for that in September.
I definitely will! So, you’ve written books for both adults and young adults. Do you have a preference?
No, I don’t. I think the important thing for me both about reading and writing is to not be a snob. A good story is available everywhere. I genuinely believe that. It’s whatever the story needs to be. I didn’t plan to write for teenagers, but Knife of Never Letting Go clearly was for teenagers and my response was, ‘great, let’s see where this goes, let’s see what happens’. I don’t put in any different effort, any different thematic complexity. They’re both the same experience, to me. it’s just so important not be a snob when you write or when you read.
I’ve heard that there is a rhinoceros in all of your books. I’m wondering, is this true?
Almost all of my books. I like rhinoceroses a lot. I love them, they’re my favourite animal. I have a tattoo of one. I was putting them in my books, but then people started to notice and it was kind of my secret thing. And it’s okay, it’s cool. I don’t mind. But I thought, okay, I don’t want to be sort of trapped by this. So there’s consciously no rhinoceros in Release and there is no rhinoceros in the new book either. I don’t know about the one after that, but, we’ll see. If you look for them they’re in lots of places.
Thank you very much!
Thanks for the interview.
Patrick Ness
Born: October 17, 1971 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States
Nationality: British
Occupation: Writer
Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2017. From Literature Resource Center.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2018 Gale, a Cengage Company
Updated:Jan. 9, 2017
Table of Contents
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Born October 17, 1971, in Fort Belvoir, VA; became British citizen, 2005; married. Education: University of Southern California, B.A. Addresses: Home: London, England. E-mail: patricknessdotcom@gmail.com.
CAREER:
Writer. Former corporate writer in CA; freelance writer, beginning c. 1997. Writer in residence, Booktrust. Oxford University, Oxford, England, instructor in creative writing.
AWARDS:
London Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, Booktrust Teenage Prize, and James Tiptree Jr. Award, all 2008, and Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2009, all for The Knife of Never Letting Go; Costa Book Award, 2009, and Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2010, both for The Ask and the Answer; Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist, and Carnegie Medal, both 2011, both for Monsters of Men; Kitschies Red Tentacle prize, Carnegie Medal, and Red House Book Award, all 2012, all for A Monster Calls: Inspired by an Idea from Siobhan Dowd; Black Tentacle Prize awarded to the genre community personified by Patrick Ness, Kitschies, 2016, for raising £689,793.56 for Save the Children.
WORKS:
WRITINGS:
"CHAOS WALKING" TRILOGY; FOR YOUNG ADULTS
The Knife of Never Letting Go, Walker Books (London, England), 2008, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2009.
The Ask and the Answer, Candlewick Press (Somerville, MA), 2009.
Monsters of Men, Candlewick Press (Somerville, MA), 2010.
NOVELS; EXCEPT WHERE NOTED
The Crash of Hennington, Flamingo (London, England), 2003.
Topics about Which I Know Nothing (short fiction), Flamingo (London, England), 2004.
A Monster Calls: Inspired by an Idea from Siobhan Dowd (young adult), Walker (New York, NY), 2011.
More Than This (young adult), Candlewick Press (Somerville, MA), 2013.
The Crane Wife, Penguin Press (New York, NY), 2013.
The Rest of Us Just Live Here (young adult), HarperTeen (New York, NY), 2015.
Contributor to periodicals, including Daily Telegraph, Times Literary Supplement, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, and Genre.
Sidelights
Patrick Ness combines fantasy with science fiction in his award-winning novel The Knife of Never Letting Go. Born in the United States, Ness became a British citizen in 2005 and lives in London. He began working as a fiction writer in the late 1990s and produced his first novel, The Crash of Hennington, in 2003. Topics about Which I Know Nothing, a book of short fiction, followed before Ness turned his attention to teen readers.
The first book in Ness's "Chaos Walking" trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go takes readers to Prentisstown, a rural community on a newly colonized planet in which no women can be found. Prentisstown has another odd characteristic: every thought of every resident--human and animal--can be heard by all, resulting in the total lack of privacy and the unceasing, overbearing mental cacophony called Noise. At twelve years of age, Todd Hewitt is the youngest resident of Prentisstown. It is almost time for Todd to undergo initiation when he discovers a place where he is immune from the Noise. This discovery prompts Todd's adoptive parents to help him escape from town. Pursued by the army of Mayor Prentiss, the preteen discovers the wreckage of a space ship in a local swamp and finds a young girl named Viola hiding in the woods nearby. Todd had assumed all the women had been killed by the Noise; however, he now realizes that the actual history of Prentisstown is far more horrific and far more deadly.
In Kliatt, Paula Rohrlick called The Knife of Never Letting Go a "haunting page-turner" featuring "edge-of-your-seat chase scenes" and "moments of both anguish and triumph." Although a Kirkus Reviews critic found the novel's pacing "uneven" and the premise "unbelievable," its "emotional, physical, and intellectual drama is well-crafted and relentless," wrote School Library Journal contributor Megan Honig. In Horn Book, Claire E. Gross cited Ness's "subtle world-building" and his ability to create relationships between characters that are "nuanced" and feature "considerable emotional depth." Calling The Knife of Never Letting Go a "troubling, unforgettable [series] opener," Booklist critic Ian Chipman concluded of the novel that Ness's "cliffhanger ending is as effective as a shot to the gut."
Ness's "Chaos Walking" trilogy continues with The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men. Pursued by the army of Prentisstown in The Ask and the Answer, Todd and Viola arrive at the city of Haven only to become separated when they are captured by the maniacal Mayor Prentiss. With his freedom gone, Todd must now cooperate with Prentiss's scheme for creating the perfect society, even as that plan begins to drive him mad. Meanwhile, Viola is sent to a female compound where she joins a loosely formed resistance group that selectively bombs area targets. In Publishers Weekly, a contributor praised The Ask and the Answer as a "grim and beautifully written sequel" that prompts readers to question "the nature of evil and humanity." The "Chaos Walking" trilogy "continues to develop a fascinating world," wrote Horn Book critic Claire E. Gross, "and its fully formed characters and conflicts draw attention to difficult issues with a rare, unblinking candor." In The Ask and the Answer, "Ness delivers a leaner, meaner narrative," concluded a Kirkus Reviews writer, and in Booklist, Chipman wrote that, while the novel is slightly "less exhilarating" than The Knife of Never Letting Go, it is "far weightier and no less stunning to read."
In A Monster Calls: Inspired by an Idea from Siobhan Dowd, Ness tells "the tale of Conor O'Malley, a thirteen-year-old boy who is repeatedly visited by a monster while his mother is dying," explained London Telegraph contributor Martin Chilton. "He is haunted by a nightmare so awful that he refuses to even think about it," wrote Booklist correspondent Chipman, "but what he can square off against is the enormous, tree-shaped monster that also shows up in the dark of the night, demanding that Conor speak 'the truth.'" "In later visits, the monster tells Conor three parables. Unlike the traditional folktales whose form they echo, the monster's stories are messy. They're full of tough decisions, unexpected outcomes and imperfect characters beyond the neat archetypes of good and evil," declared Jessica Bruder in the New York Times Book Review. "Conor dreads what will happen after he hears the third and final story because the monster has warned him that when the telling is done, Conor must speak his own tale." "Death is not fair and it does not arrive conveniently," stated Laurie Vaughan in Voice of Youth Advocates, "and it is messy and confusing, ultimately leaving its victims feeling powerless." The book was honored with both the Kitschies Red Tentacle prize and the Red House Book Award. "Ness brilliantly captures Conor's horrifying emotional ride," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, "as his mother's inevitable death approaches." "Ness shines Dowd's glimmer into the deepest, most hidden darkness of doubt," concluded Chipman in his Booklist review, "and finds a path through."
More Than This features a posthumous narrator, a teenager named Seth who feels himself die, only to wake up in a strange afterlife. Seth finds himself in a place that looks like his old house, but everything is covered in dust and he seems to be the only person on the planet. Yet, Seth is still very much corporeal; he feels cold, warmth, and hunger, and he must scavenge for food. When Seth finally encounters someone else, he is desperate to find out if he is in hell or someplace like it. He eventually comes across two boys who are running from the Driver (a mysterious, evil being), and they don't know why they are being chased, or where they are. All three must work together to discover the circumstances of their fates.
While reviewers noted that More Than This is not without its flaws, a Kirkus Reviews critic found that "Ness brilliantly plays with contrasts: life and death, privacy and exposure, guilt and innocence." A Publishers Weekly contributor was somewhat ambivalent, but nevertheless concluded that "Ness's exploration of big questions ... will provide solace for the right readers." Jonathan Hunt, writing in Horn Book, was far more positive, asserting that Ness "is not only a good storyteller but an interesting prose stylist, and his latest effort is as provocative as ever." Voice of Youth Advocates correspondent Barbara Allen was equally laudatory, stating that "Ness leads readers on an adventure into a world that astounds and amazes. The plot twists and turns in many unexpected ways." And Daniel Kraus remarked in Booklist: "Ness has crafted something stark and uncompromising."
In The Rest of Us Just Live Here, protagonist Mikey Mitchell is a high-school student in Washington. Among his classmates are a group of nerdy-yet-cool teenagers called the "indie kids." The indie kids, also referred to as the Chosen Ones, have saved the world from multiple threats, including vampires. Mikey, a normal teenager without the superpowers that the indie kids have, simply hopes to graduate before the impending apocalypse. He also worries about his anorexic older sister, Mel, and harbors a crush on Henna, whose missionary parents plan to take her to Africa for the summer.
Linda Buckley-Archer, a reviewer on the London Guardian Web site, suggested: "The story of Mikey's tentative steps towards maturity is affecting, while Ness's insightful portrayal of his wide-ranging anxiety taps straight into many teenagers' uncertainty about who they are." Buckley-Archer continued: "In this smart, funny and entertaining novel, Ness, who is never afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, successfully challenges the notion that real life is elsewhere." "The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a risky literary joke: a parody of teenage fantasy fiction. The indie kid storyline is sketched in with wry efficiency," remarked Molly Guinness on the London Telegraph Web site. Guinness added: "In inviting readers to appreciate his literary joke, Ness is paying them a compliment, too." Writing on Tor.com, Niall Alexander asserted: "Let me count the ways in which this oh-so-satisfying standalone made me happy: in its credible, kind-hearted characters; in its strangely relatable reality; in its unpretentious presentation of difference; in its remarkably restrained pace; in its generous prose." Alexander concluded: "The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a truly beautiful book that, on the back of More Than This and the 'Chaos Walking' novels, cements Patrick Ness' reputation as the most consistently brilliant writer of YA today." Voice of Youth Advocates critic Samantha Godbey commented: "This novel will have wide appeal. Clever and laugh-out-loud funny, the supernatural side notes add tension and humor to the story." "Ness continues to surprise in this sarcastic yet honest depiction of teen angst," wrote Angela Leeper in BookPage. Horn Book magazine contributor Shoshana Flax described the volume as an "often-hilarious (and just as often poignant) parody of fantasy stories." A reviewer in Publishers Weekly noted: "Having written both exquisite fantasies and heartbreaking contemporary stories, Ness ... forays into satire, and mostly succeeds." "Ness offers a hilarious ... commentary on the chosen-one stories," stated a Kirkus Reviews writer. The same writer called the novel "fresh, funny, and full of heart: not to be missed." Booklist reviewer Lexi Walters Wright predicted: "This memorable, moving, and often hilarious read is sure to be a hit."
Aside from The Crash of Hennington, Ness is also the author of The Crane Wife, a literary adult novel based on a Japanese folk tale. The plot features George Duncan, an American who owns and runs a print shop in London. George is divorced and he has given up on love. One night, he finds a majestic crane in his garden; its wing has been pierced by an arrow. George removes the arrow, the crane flies away, and he thinks nothing of it. The next day a woman named Kumiko arrives, enthralling both George and his adult daughter.
Commending The Crane Wife in Kirkus Reviews, a critic called it "a magical realist meditation on how to love and be possessed by love." Ursula K. Le Guin, writing in the London Guardian, was skeptical, explaining: "This essentially light, good-natured book tries to invoke powerful, elemental emotions using a vocabulary and imagery too trite to do the job. Ness mixes highly staged drama with deliberate deflation." Le Guin added that the "banal language reduces the beautiful central legend to sentimentality. It's too bad, because there is real kindliness in the story; and kindliness is a quality even rarer in novels than in 'real life, with all its disappointments'." Nevertheless, a Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that "the narrative pace will keep the pages turning, while the imagery and metaphors wound throughout will stay with readers." Katharine Fronk, assessing the novel in Booklist, averred that it is "fantastical and whimsical yet tormented."
FURTHER READINGS:
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2008, Ian Chipman, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 97; August 1, 2009, Ian Chipman, review of The Ask and the Answer, p. 66; July 1, 2011, Ian Chipman, review of A Monster Calls: Inspired by an Idea from Siobhan Dowd, p. 52; August 1, 2013, Daniel Kraus, review of More Than This, p. 80; November 1, 2013, Katharine Fronk, review of The Crane Wife, p. 22; July 1, 2015, Lexi Walters Wright, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 59.
BookPage, October, 2015, Angela Leeper, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 29.
Financial Times, April 26, 2008, James Lovegrove, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 19.
Guardian (London, England), April 19, 2013, Ursula K. Le Guin, review of The Crane Wife.
Horn Book, November-December, 2008, Claire E. Gross, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 712; September-October, 2009, Claire E. Gross, review of The Ask and the Answer, p. 570; September-October, 2011, Cynthia K. Ritter, review of A Monster Calls, p. 93; November-December, 2013, Jonathan Hunt, review of More Than This, p. 101; September-October, 2015, Shoshana Flax, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 112.
Independent (London, England), June 24, 2011, Nicolette Jones, "Whole Truth for Teenagers: Patrick Ness's Novels Have Attracted Acclaim, Awards--and Censure."
Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2008, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go; August 15, 2009, review of The Ask and the Answer; July 15, 2011, review of A Monster Calls; September 1, 2013, review of More Than This; December 15, 2013, review of The Crane Wife; August 1, 2015, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
Kliatt, September, 2008, Paula Rohrlick, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 18.
Library Journal, January 1, 2014, Shannon Greene, review of The Crane Wife, p. 101.
New York Times Book Review, October 16, 2011, Jessica Bruder, "Facing His Fears," review of A Monster Calls, p. 18.
Publishers Weekly, August 31, 2009, review of The Ask and the Answer, p. 59; June 20, 2011, review of A Monster Calls, p. 54; July 8, 2013, review of More Than This, p. 90; August 3, 2015, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 63.
School Library Journal, November, 2008, Megan Honig, review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, p. 133; September, 2011, Krista Welz, review of A Monster Calls, p. 164.
Telegraph (London, England), February 18, 2012, Martin Chilton, "Patrick Ness Wins Red House Book Award."
Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 2011, Laurie Vaughan, review of A Monster Calls, p. 407; October, 2013, Barbara Allen, review of More Than This, p. 85; December, 2015, Samantha Godbey, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 73.
ONLINE
Book Trust Web site, http://www.booktrust.org.uk/ (April 11, 2012), "Patrick Ness' Writing Tips 1: Getting Started."
Guardian Online, http://www.theguardian.com/ (August 29, 2015), Linda Buckley-Archer, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
Patrick Ness Home Page, http://www.patrickness.com (May 11, 2014).
Telegraph Online, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (September 3, 2015), Molly Guinness, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
Tor.com, http://www.tor.com/ (October 6, 2015), Niall Alexander, review of The Rest of Us Just Live Here.*
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Patrick Ness." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2017. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1000191948/LitRC?u=schlager&sid=LitRC&xid=8213ee1c. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|H1000191948
NESS, Patrick. And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Emma Carbone
School Library Journal. 64.8 (Aug. 2018): p76.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
* NESS, Patrick. And the Ocean Was Our Sky. illus. by Rovina Cai. 160p. HarperCollins/HarperTeen. Sept. 2018. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9780062860729.
Gr 7 Up--As a young whale, Bathsheba was all too eager to join Captain Alexandra's crew hunting men for vengeance and the raw materials used in everyday whale life. But after years spent working her way up to Third Apprentice on the fiercest crew in the sea and sailing down toward the air-filled Abyss to hunt men, Bathsheba has begun to question the raw hatred that drives hunters in their constant war. Bathsheba's weary narrative is heavy with foreshadowing and circumspection as she relates the events that set her crew on a fateful hunt for the man Toby Wick--the devil known to whale and man for his terrible deeds and his fierce white ship. Ness channels Melville's original language well and uses the structure of Moby-Dick as a framework for this fast-paced and streamlined retelling filled with philosophical meditations and cautions against the violence of war and the power of prophecy--especially self-fulfilling ones. Cai's accompanying illustrations interspersed throughout bring the depths of the ocean to life with jarring, full-color artwork that calls back to the haunting setting and anguished tone of the narrative. VERDICT An excellent, stirring counterpoint to the original text, rife with questions about the inexorable nature of belief and violence.--Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library
KEY: * Excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject or in the same genre | Tr Hardcover trade binding | lib. ed. Publisher's library binding | Board Board book | pap. Paperback | e eBook original | BL Bilingual | POP Popular Picks
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Carbone, Emma. "NESS, Patrick. And the Ocean Was Our Sky." School Library Journal, Aug. 2018, p. 76. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A548561766/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a6af57ed. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A548561766
Ness, Patrick: Release
Lizzie Ryder
School Librarian. 65.3 (Autumn 2017): p190.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
Full Text:
Ness, Patrick
Release
Walker, 2017, pp288, 12.99 [pounds sterling]
978 1 4063 3117 2
I was tempted to leave my review at 'it's Patrick Ness--he never writes the same book twice--you're going to want to read this'. But actually that wouldn't be doing this beautiful, beautiful book justice.
Taking its literary inspiration from Woolf's Mrs Dalloway with a healthy dose of Judy Blume's educative Forever thrown into the mix, this is the story of Adam Thorn. Trapped in rural small town America, son of preacher parents and weighed down by their expectations, the novel's title looms large over the narrative. On the Saturday during which the book's action takes place, Adam crosses paths with friends, family and lovers as well as enduring a skin crawling encounter with his employer; it brings revelations, goodbyes and the tantalising possibility that Adam's world might be reshaped by the end of it.
Interwoven with Adam's story is the otherworldly tale of a murdered girl and a mythical Queen who move through our reality seeking answers, revenge and their own particular brand of 'release'. If this sounds off-putting, do not fear -this is Patrick Ness remember: it just works. Though the connection between Adam and the Queen is glancing, the two narratives accelerate in harmony, propelling one another towards the day's final denouement. As Adam navigates the real world, the parallel narrative hints to the extraordinary terror and beauty which might underlie the everyday and between the two we see the miraculous--the world stopping, world just beginning--possibilities and hardships of being a teen. In the messy confusion of relationships, love, loss, family and friendships nothing is trivialised, rather it is marvelled at. As with all Patrick Ness's books it's devastating, it's optimistic but is above all it's truthful. You are going to want to read this.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Ryder, Lizzie. "Ness, Patrick: Release." School Librarian, Autumn 2017, p. 190. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A506957524/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b246f9b3. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A506957524
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 1/11
Print Marked Items
AND THE OCEAN WAS OUR SKY
Justin Barisich
BookPage.
(Sept. 2018): p27.
COPYRIGHT 2018 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
By Patrick Ness
Illustrated by Rovina Cai HarperTeen $19.99, 160 pages ISBN 9780062860729 Audio, eBook available
Ages 13 and up
Drawing heavily from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Patrick Ness has given a famous antagonist a voice
through this retelling that transports readers into a foreboding underwater realm where whales hunt
seafaring humans.
These whales have formed their own civilization with hierarchies that mirror the human social structures
above the surface. The most fearsome hunter whale, Captain Alexandra, obsessively pursues the devilish,
deadly human of lore known as Toby Wick. As Alexandra and her apprentice, Bathsheba, search for Wick,
they come across an abandoned human ship with a sole survivor whom they take captive. As Bathsheba and
the captive human discover their similarities, they learn how their fears have set their species against one
another.
Touching on themes of faith, prophecy and destiny, And the Ocean Was Our Sky is an otherworldly myth--
beautifully illustrated by Rovina Cai--that feels eerily real.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Barisich, Justin. "AND THE OCEAN WAS OUR SKY." BookPage, Sept. 2018, p. 27. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A550998308/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cdb3ee6b.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A550998308
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 2/11
* And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Publishers Weekly.
265.32 (Aug. 6, 2018): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Patrick Ness, illus by Rovina Cai. HarperTeen, $19.99 (160p) ISBN 978-0-06-286072-9
Like Melville's Moby Dick, on which it is based, Ness's profound tale is one of obsession and prophecy,
with a twist--it's told from the whale's perspective. The narrative introduces readers to a flipped world in
which a technologically advanced Cetacean society dominates the oceans. "Call me Bathsheba," the whale
narrator intones, recounting her pod's ill-fated hunt for the mythical human killer of whales, Toby Wick
("Our devil. Our monster. Our myth"). Led by Captain Alexandra--the most storied of the captains, a
harpoon buried in her head--Third Apprentice Bathsheba and the Alexandra's other apprentices happen
upon the wreck of a human ship. They find a single man alive, his hand protruding from the hull and
clutching a disk (a message? a map?). Realizing they are on the trail of Toby Wick, the whales take the
human hostage, then take to the hunt. In expansive illustrations by Cai (Tintinnula), rendered in inky washes
and line-work that mimics the ocean's currents, the whales fly through the water, rendered above, not below,
the air-filled "abyss" that humans inhabit. The whale epic, particularly Bathsheba's discussions with the
human hostage, mounts an exploration of inherited prejudices, violence justified, and the far-reaching
consequences of war. Ages 13--up. Author's agent: Michelle Kass. Michelle Kass Assoc. (Sept.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"* And the Ocean Was Our Sky." Publishers Weekly, 6 Aug. 2018, p. 74. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A550547736/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=57c8e3bd.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A550547736
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 3/11
Ness, Patrick: AND THE OCEAN WAS
OUR SKY
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Ness, Patrick AND THE OCEAN WAS OUR SKY HarperTeen (Young Adult Fiction) $19.99 9, 4 ISBN:
978-0-06-286072-9
An ancient war draws to a climax as a vengeful--and literally hard-nosed--sea captain seeks out a demonic
killer.
Ness (Release, 2017, etc.) mines Moby-Dick for incidents and motifs, pitting men against whales in a
futuristic alternate world. Along with telling the tale from a young whale's point of view, he reverses the
usual orientation of the universe so that cetacean crews go down to meet their enemies at the threshold
where oceans give way to the deep, unknowable Abyss of air. In a conflict that has raged for millennia, both
sides wield harpoons and store their savagely dismembered opponents in wooden hulls for transport.
Having seen her own mother ambushed and torn to pieces, Bathsheba eagerly joins Capt. Alexandra, who
bears the stub of a harpoon in her head, in ramming ships to splinters. But the reflective narrator catches
profound glimpses of how destructive implacable mutual hatred can be to both body and soul as her
captain's obsessive search for the white ship of the universally feared Toby Wick leads through massacres
and chancy encounters to a melodramatic confrontation. The story, though far shorter than its progenitor,
conjures similar allegorical weight by pairing the narrative's rolling cadences with powerful, shadowy
illustrations featuring looming whales, an upside-down ship in full sail, and swarms of red-eyed sharks, all
amid dense swirls of water and blood.
Wrenching, dark, and powerful--no fluke, considering its model. (Fantasy. 13-15)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Ness, Patrick: AND THE OCEAN WAS OUR SKY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A543008943/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=546e19ae.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A543008943
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 4/11
Release
Publishers Weekly.
264.49-50 (Dec. 4, 2017): pS101.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Release
Patrick Ness. HarperTeen, $17.99 ISBN 978-0-06-240319-3
A heartbreaking dual narrative follows Adam, a gay teenager with homophobic parents, and the ghost of a
classmate murdered by her meth-addicted boyfriend, over the course of one, defining day. In the hours
before a going-away party for his first love, Adam Thorn has fateful confrontations with his evangelical
pastor father and with the creepy boss who has been sexually harassing him. But the real bombshell is
dropped when Angela, a friend Adam relies on, announces that she's moving from Washington State to the
Netherlands for senior year. Ness (The Rest of Us Just Live Here) interleaves Adam's multipronged crisis
with a strand tracking the murdered girl's spirit as it seeks revenge (in the company of a seven-foot-tall
faun) against her killer. Adam's story dominates the narrative and provides a frank, riveting portrayal of a
gay teenager's sexual awakening (an endnote acknowledges the influence of both Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway
and Blume's Forever). The paranormal storyline isn't quite as affecting as the plotline that follows Adam,
but it conveys a sense of the mystery that can infuse ordinary lives. Ages 14--up.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Release." Publishers Weekly, 4 Dec. 2017, p. S101. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A518029889/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1ca135ea.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A518029889
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 5/11
Release: A stunning story of a single day
Jill Ratzan
BookPage.
(Oct. 2017): p27.
COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
It's a regular summer's day for Adam Thorn. It begins with picking up gardening supplies for his mother
(even though his brother, Marty, ran over her chrysanthemums). Later, he's off to run with his cross-country
team, and then he clocks in at what he calls the Evil International Mega-Conglomerate warehouse. After
that it's a brief stop to see his best friend, Angela, followed by his boyfriend, Linus. That evening, Adam
helps at his preacher father's evangelical church and ends the night at a going-away party for Enzo, an ex
for whom Adam still yearns.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Adam's day alternates between the mundane and the extraordinary: Angela and Marty both have revelations
to share; Linus needs more from Adam than his heart is ready to give; and Adam's tenuous truce with his
father may be coming to an end. But as Adam's day progresses, so does someone else's: that of a mysterious
presence who might be the ghost of a murdered girl--or perhaps the embodiment of an ancient water queen.
Adam's story and that of the drowned spirit run parallel for a time, but when they overlap, both could find
some kind of release.
Drawing inspiration from Judy Blume's Forever. . . and Virginia Woolf's classic circadian novel Mrs.
Dalloway, this new novel from Carnegie Medal winning-author Patrick Ness features diverse characters,
unique religious perspectives (Adam's father's strict rules don't hold a monopoly on spirituality) and just
enough honest talk about sex to make it a good choice for older teen readers.
REVIEW BY JILL RATZAN
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Ratzan, Jill. "Release: A stunning story of a single day." BookPage, Oct. 2017, p. 27. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A507825825/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=dca9f3c0.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 6/11
Gale Document Number: GALE|A507825825
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 7/11
Release
Shoshana Flax
The Horn Book Magazine.
93.5 (September-October 2017): p103+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
Release
by Patrick Ness
High School HarperTeen 279 pp. g
9/17 978-0-06-240319-3 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-06-240321-6 $10.99
Ness follows seventeen-year-old Adam through one eventful day. A goodbye party is planned for his exboyfriend
Enzo, but first there's a revelation from Adam's pious brother, a threatening encounter with
Adam's lecherous male boss, a much more positive encounter with his current boyfriend Linus, and a
confrontation with his evangelical minister father. Meanwhile, in occasional interspersed passages, the
ghost of recently murdered classmate Katherine wanders the town. The book is full of references to Mrs.
Dalloway and to Virginia Woolf ("Adam would have to get the flowers himself"; Katherine is drowned with
weighted pockets), and its author's note cites its debt to that book and to Judy Blume's Forever. Release
echoes the latter's frankness about teen sexuality, as well as the gravity Forever gives to teen concerns: only
Katherine needs to let go of her earthly life, but Adam needs to let go of things, too, and Ness treats these as
equally important. The voice here is more grounded than Mrs. Dalloway s, and most of the book is closer to
realism than Ness's in-some-ways-similar More Than This (rev. 11/13), but this book's self-awareness lends
its events a dreamlike feel. Though it functions as an accessible, standalone coming-of-age story, awareness
of its influences makes for a layered reading experience. SHOSHANA FLAX
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Flax, Shoshana. "Release." The Horn Book Magazine, Sept.-Oct. 2017, p. 103+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A503641833/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=82b963fd.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A503641833
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 8/11
Ness, Patrick. Release
Lisa A. Hazlett
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.3 (Aug. 2017): p75.
COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
4Q * 2P * S
Ness, Patrick. Release. HarperTeen, 2017. 288p. $17.99. 978-0-06-240319-3.
Adam is the gay son of an evangelical minister whose father's confession, "You have no idea how much I
work to love you," epitomes his uncomfortable home life. He has quietly coped through unofficial adoption
by his best friend, Angela's, family and anticipating graduation's freedom. His entire life changes, however,
one ordinary Saturday. Pricking his finger on a rose awakens the soul of recently-murdered Katherine, who
will begin a journey mirroring Adam's, accompanied by a giant faun. Both are forced to confront and
reconcile their many problems during a single, harrowing day. Adam's issues include demanding an end to
sexual harassment from his boss, shedding his unrequited longing for his ex, making a true commitment to
his current boyfriend, and insisting his father discuss their fractured relationship.
Told in alternating chapters narrated by both main characters, this novel (heavily influenced by Virginia
Woolf s Mrs. Dalloway and Judy Blume's Forever) is meant for sophisticated readers who will appreciate its
various textual subtleties, minute attention to detail, and sophisticated sexual symbols and scenes which are
explicit yet celebratory, serving to provide important contrasts between unhealthy and loving relationships.
Adam is immensely likeable and his story is hilarious, gripping, and viciously insightful throughout. The
magical realism is debatable; scenes need explanation, Katherine is unknown to Adam, and other than one
moment, their paths never cross. Regardless of that, the novel's main points are continuously, beautifully
conveyed: family consists of people chosen as much as those related by blood; and while all meaningful and
positive relationships are difficult and messy, their maintenance is essential for fulfillment.--Lisa A. Hazlett.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hazlett, Lisa A. "Ness, Patrick. Release." Voice of Youth Advocates, Aug. 2017, p. 75. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502000866/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=be8d8910.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502000866
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 9/11
Ness, Patrick: RELEASE
Kirkus Reviews.
(July 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Ness, Patrick RELEASE HarperTeen (Children's Fiction) $17.99 9, 19 ISBN: 978-0-06-240319-3
An extraordinary, ordinary day in the life of Adam Thorn.Seventeen-year-old, tall, white, blond,
evangelical-raised Adam begins his day buying chrysanthemums for his overbearing, guilt-inducing mother.
From the get-go, some readers may recognize one of many deliberate, well-placed Virginia Woolf
references throughout the narrative. He goes on a long run. He has lunch with his bright, smart-alecky best
friend, Angela Darlington, who was born in Korea and adopted by her white parents. In a particularly
uncomfortable scene, he is sexually harassed by his boss. He also partakes in a 30-plus-page act of intimacy
that leaves little to the imagination with his new boyfriend, Linus, also white. The scene is fairly
educational, but it's also full of laughter, true intimacy, discomfort, mixed feelings, and more that elevate it
far beyond pure physicality. Meanwhile, in parallel vignettes, the ghost of a murdered teenage girl armed
with more Woolf references eerily haunts the streets and lake where she was killed. Her story permeates the
entire narrative and adds a supernatural, creepy context to the otherwise small town. What makes these
scenes rise about the mundane is Ness' ability to drop highly charged emotion bombs in the least expected
places and infuse each of them with poignant memories, sharp emotions, and beautifully rendered scenes
that are so moving it may cause readers to pause and reflect. Literary, illuminating, and stunningly told.
(Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Ness, Patrick: RELEASE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498344973/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=096207be.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498344973
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 10/11
Release
Publishers Weekly.
264.27 (July 3, 2017): p78.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Release
Patrick Ness. HarperTeen, $17.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-240319-3
A heartbreaking dual narrative follows Adam, a gay teenager with homophobic parents, and the ghost of a
classmate murdered by her meth-addicted boyfriend, over the course of one, defining day. In the hours
before a going-away party for his first love, Adam Thorn has fateful confrontations with his evangelical
pastor father and with the creepy boss who has been sexually harassing him. But the real bombshell is
dropped when Angela, a friend Adam relies on, announces that she's moving from Washington State to the
Netherlands for senior year. Ness (The Rest of Us Just Live Here) interleaves Adam's multi-pronged crisis
with a strand tracking the murdered girl's spirit as it seeks revenge (in the company of a seven-foot-tall
faun) against her killer. Adam's story dominates the narrative and provides a frank, riveting portrayal of a
gay teenager's sexual awakening (an endnote acknowledges the influence of both Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway
and Blume 's Forever). The paranormal storyline isn't quite as affecting as the plotline that follows Adam,
but it conveys a sense of the mystery that can infuse ordinary lives. Ages 14-up. Agent: Michelle Kass,
Michelle Kass Associates. (Sept.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Release." Publishers Weekly, 3 July 2017, p. 78. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498381466/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fe695ec8.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498381466
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1535557382896 11/11
Release
Maggie Reagan
Booklist.
113.21 (July 1, 2017): p52.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Release.
By Patrick Ness.
Sept. 2017. 288p. HarperTeen, $17.99 (9780062403193); e-book, $10.99 (9780062403216). Gr. 10-12.
Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Judy Blume's Forever: strange bedfellows, yes, but nevertheless the
twin inspirations for Ness' introspective latest. In past works, Ness has gone big in scope: the distant
dystopian planet of Chaos Walking; the apocalypse in The Rest of Us Just Live Here (2015). Unlikely, then,
that this cautiously paced cross section of a life would be his most ambitious yet: it's just one ordinary day
for teenager Adam Thorn. In one day, he runs, sees his boyfriend and his best friend, and works at a store.
But it's also the day he deals with an inappropriate advance, goes to a farewell party for his ex, and deals
with devastating news; it's the day his relationship with his religious family comes to a head. In real time
and in memories, Adam fights to connect through walls and to let go of what needs to be released.
Meanwhile, the ghost of a murdered girl walks his town, and in the space of one day, her life will change as
surely as Adam's. Themes of grief, choice, and resurrection are all at play here, and sex is frankly depicted--
sometimes as experience, sometimes as intimacy. Part character study, part reckoning, this is a painful,
magical gem of a novel that, even when it perplexes, will rip the hearts right out of its readers. --Maggie
Reagan
HIGH-DEMAND BACKST0RY: Ness has already collected a hefty international fan base, and a novel
partially influenced by the seminal Forever is bound to break barriers for a new generation.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Reagan, Maggie. "Release." Booklist, 1 July 2017, p. 52. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499862816/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b3075291.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499862816