This is a prequel short story to the Chaos Walking trilogy and can be found here. 
 Set thirteen years before the events that take place in the main trilogy, this might add nothing to the main narrative but opens up the world brilliantly. Declan Lowe and the rest of his community are fleeing from their seaside town to live in the larger city of Haven. Fishing is brutal in the new world, where the fish herd and hunt the people rather the other way around, and they are starving. Hunger matters little for Declan, however, when he falls in love with a Spackle native. 
 In usual Ness style, this is heartrendingly poignant and left me wanting to know more about each of the characters involved. I relish any chance to once again immerse myself in this beloved dystopian world, despite the cliffhanger endings and the pervading sadness: reading this reminds me how brutal Ness is to his readers' feelings!