Rating: 1/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 Todd Hewitt lives on a planet where every man can hear each other's thoughts. He lives in Prentisstown, where all the women were killed off not long after he was born as a result of a germ released by an alien species, the Spackles, which killed half the men and all of the women. Todd and his companion dog, Manchee, are used to hearing the voices of everyone around them. When Todd and Manchee head to the swamp to gather swamp apples, Todd notices this area of silence in the swamp. When he tells his father figure, Ben, he is told that he has to run, and is sent off with only some food, a map, and a notebook from his deceased mother. We spend the book trying to unravel why it was so important that he ran, and what secrets Prentisstown was hiding. 
 The first thing I noticed about this book was the writing style. It's written in a sort of broken, slang-like English that was pretty irritating. I got more used to it later in the book but it still bothered me at times. I know that it was written like that as a way to give us a further glimpse into Todd's mind, because they're on a new planet and Todd is barely educated at all because the mayor of his town doesn't want them to be. Throughout the book there are words like "direkshuns," and he also uses "ain't" instead of "isn't" and there are also many other things that get quite irritating after reading them enough times. 
 I got used to the writing style after a while, so that wasn't the whole reason I disliked this book so much. I just didn't really connect with any of the characters, considering my favourite character was the dog, whose thoughts consisted of "Todd? Todd? Ow, Todd?" and "Poo, poo Todd!" Despite the unique writing style which should have made me feel more connected to Todd, I didn't feel much for him. I also didn't feel much about the female lead, Viola. I didn't really care much when anything happened to them or when someone got hurt/killed off. (view spoiler)[ I only got seriously bothered when Manchee was killed off, because he was the only character I liked. I wish Ness kept him. (hide spoiler)] The majority of this book is also spent running away, which I'm not a big fan of. 
 Overall, I heard great things about this book, so I was quite disappointed while reading. I expected to really enjoy it but the writing and characters had me unable to enjoy it much. If you're looking for a book that's unique, this is definitely it, but I don't recommend it if you find reading broken English annoying or a strong connection with several characters is important to you.