"I AM THE CIRCLE AND THE CIRCLE IS ME" 
 For me the first book in this series, The Knife of Never Letting Go, was excellent. This one, the second of the series, was outstanding. The story picks up where the first book ends. With that said, I will avoid specifics of plot elements as much as possible, and focus on general themes and the writing. 
 Patrick Ness has succeeded brilliantly in reaching two objectives that I would have thought incompatible. On one hand, he has written a gripping story that is dominated by strong characters, with crisp, clean plot lines and universal good vs. evil themes. The pages turn rapidly, as if by themselves. 
 On the other hand, he has used only first-person narration to build a dense network of conflicts and deeper implications into this relatively simple storyline. The two main characters (Todd and Viola) struggle throughout with big questions for which there are no clear answers. The romantic aspects of the story are complex and constantly shifting. These complexities had me thinking hard (in a good way) through most of the book. My thoughts kept shifting from the latest plot twist to the bigger picture and back again, as the pages just kept turning. 
 A lot of the complexities are built around the bigger issues of mind control - both internal and external. Without getting too specific (I hope), there are ongoing internal struggles for both Todd and Viola - with how to fight the evil forces, but also with understanding just what is evil and what is (mostly) good. In short, they are constantly in the foggy area of tradeoffs, facing choices between bad and worse scenarios. But those internal struggles would be manageable, if not for the external struggles against the mind-control and other powers of a truly bad (male) leader. And I won't even talk about the extremely complex female leader, except to say that she is perhaps the most fascinating character in the book. The mastery of the book is that it juggles all of these big themes in a compelling narrative that is really hard to put down. 
 The fact that all of this is done in first-person voice required extreme skill. In The Knife of Never Letting Go, the telling was done entirely by Todd - an unsophisticated (but not at all simple) coming-of-age boy. While I much prefer to read language that is elegant and beautiful, Todd is not capable of such language, and the author sticks to his guns on this point. In hindsight, this choice was critical for making the story come alive, and I really admire the author's ability to make it work. 
 With that said, I was more than happy to see the equal reliance, in this book, on the much more sophisticated and articulate voice of Viola. Her active narrative role was a major enhancement to the reading experience for me. 
 More importantly, the author alternated the two voices beautifully to explore a whole new range of complex emotions as the characters struggled, learned, succeeded and failed in the overwhelming challenges that they faced. 
 One of the best features of this book is the constant challenge to re-examine your ideas about what, and who, is really good or really evil. You think you know, and it all seems so simple, but you are continually forced to rethink your assumptions. 
 I also loved the fact that the author took a lot of chances - notably with a very inventive mode of 'communication' that plays a crucial role in the story. In many ways, this book forced me to rethink my own definition of great writing. I love the great wordsmiths, the ones with liquid prose that flows through your head and spreads ideas as it passes. For me, the central wonder of this book is that it spreads a wealth of ideas, but does so with deliberately ordinary prose. 
 Very highly recommended.